Mac OS X Grapher: Axes, Grids, and Backgrounds

Finally, a post! I’ve made some changes to the blog.  First, I’ve added a Donate button to the sidebar;  clicking the button takes you to Paypal, where you’re free to contribute to my “Feed the Putterer” fund.  I do realize that most of you are broke, grumpy college students without much cash to spare.  Still, if any of you are (independently wealthy) ∩ (grateful for my Grapher efforts), contributions would be appreciated.

Mac OS X Grapher: Contour and Vector Plots

Whew! This post just kept getting longer and longer, until finally I decided I needed to bite it off if it was ever going to get posted. Today we will discuss contour and vector plots, together with a few simple examples. As always, click on any graph to enlarge.

Mac OS X Grapher – Plotting Data and Curve Fitting

“You can’t use Grapher to plot data.” Not true! You can use Grapher to plot data – it’s just a pain in the butt. Nevertheless Grapher can be useful if you want to plot a small data set and/or do some quick and dirty curve fitting.  As always, click on any image to enlarge.

Mac OS X Grapher – Plotting Points and Adding Extras

Woot!  We’re back!  Apologies for the radio silence – real life has been kicking me in the teeth.  Nothing like tangling with an insurance company to suck the life out of you.

To ease back into this blogging thing I decided to start with two relatively straightforward topics: plotting points and adding extras (arrows, labels, etc.).  Not very exciting but sometimes useful for the purposes of decorating and/or clarifying your plot.  As before, click on any picture to enlarge.

Mac OS X Grapher – Using Parameters

Welcome to part two of my unofficial MacOS X Grapher User’s Guide – Using Parameters. As before, click on any graph to enlarge.

Mac OS X Grapher – Getting Started

Successful puttering in mathematics requires some way of visualizing the equations you are playing with. It’s all very well to slap around some equation using just a pencil and paper, but there’s a lot of information to be gained from actually looking at the beast.  So a good graphing program is an essential part of the putterer’s toolkit.

Look, Honey, there’s Aldebaran!

When I was little girl (many, many years ago), my dad used to take me for walks around our apartment complex at night. Sometime we’d talk, sometimes we wouldn’t; but it always made me feel important, getting to stay up late and spend some time one-on-one with Dad.