I'm a professor of mathematics at the University of North Carolina Asheville. I've also done a fair amount of consulting work over the years focusing on scientific and data visualization.
I'm happy to be part of the first Observable Ambassador's cohort.
Published
Edited
Sep 30, 2022
3 stars
A Julia set on the Riemann sphereThe Z-CurveBarnsley's fernA stochastic digraph IFS algorithmSelf-affine tilesThe TwindragonThe Eisenstein fractionsA self-affine tile with holesSelf-affine tiles via polygon mergeGolden rectangle fractalsBifurcation diagram with critical curvesThe tame twindragonIllustrations for the proof of Green's theoremNon-orientability of a Mobius stripExamples of parametric surfacesPenrose tilingThe extended unit circlePenrose three coloringNewtons's method on the Riemann sphereConic sectionsDivisor graphsThe dance of Earth and VenusIterating multiples of the sine functionBorderline fractalsSelf-similar intersectionsBox-counting dimension examplesMandelbrot by dimensionInverse iteration for quadratic Julia setsInteger Apollonian PackingsIllustrations of two-dimensonal heat flowThe logistic bifurcation locusThe eleven unfoldings of the cubeA unimodal function with fractal level curvesGreen's theorem and polygonal areaThe geometry and numerics of first order ODEsThe xxx^xxx-spindleAnimated beatsRauzy FractalsHilbert's coordinate functionsPluckNot PiDrum strikeThe Koch snowflakeFractalized squareA Taylor series about π/4\pi/4π/4PlotX3D HyperboloidA PlotX3D animationModular arithmetic in 5th grade artSimple S-I-R ModelThe Poisson KernelPoly-gasketsClassification of 2D linear systems via trace and determinantJulia sets and the Mandelbrot setWater wavesFourier SeriesDisks for a solid of revolutionOrbit detection for the Mandelbrot setTracing a path on a spherePlot for mathematiciansFunctions of two variablesPartial derivativesDijkstra's algorithm on an RGGGradient ascentUnfolding polyhedraTangent plane to a level surfaceA strange discontinuityExamples of level surfacesMcMullen carpetsThe definition of ⇒Double and iterated integralsMST in an RGGTrees are bipartiteFractal typesettingd3.hierarchy and d3.treeK23 is PlanarPolar CoordinatesParametric region generatorParametric Plot 2DContour plotsGreedy graph coloringGraph6A few hundred interesting graphsThe Kings ProblemFirst order, autonomous systems of ODEsRunge-Kutta for systems of ODEs
Hills and valleys
// Generate the 2D contour pic
pic = {
let pic = contour_plot(
([x, y]) => G(x, y),
[
[-4, 4],
[-4, 4]
],
d3.range(-2, 1.4, 0.2),
{ w: width / 2, h: width / 2 }
);
// Uncomment to enable the addition of points via a button click
// d3.select(pic).on("click", function (evt) {
// let [x, y] = d3.pointer(evt);
// d3.select(pic).append("circle").attr("cx", x).attr("cy", y).attr("r", 5);
// });
return pic;
}
// Generate the 3D surface pic
pic3d = show_x3d(
[create_surface((x, y) => [x, y, G(x, y)], [-4, 4], [-4, 4])],
{
width: width / 2,
height: width / 2,
viewpoint: {
position: "-2.579465266379039 -9.28945264093612 8.260884817754016",
orientation:
"0.9621638548880421 -0.1636946287319893 -0.21781823815116785,0.8810948099150814"
}
}
)
// The function as a sum of kinda like Gaussians
G = (x, y) => d3.sum(gs.map((g, n) => (-1) ** n * g(x, y)))
// The kinda like Gaussian functions
gs = (reset,
d3
.range(6)
.map(() =>
g(
d3.randomUniform(-2.5, 2.5)(),
d3.randomUniform(-2.5, 2.5)(),
d3.randomUniform(0.5, 1)()
)
))
// The fundamental function, which is kinda like a gaussian
function g(a, b, s) {
return (x, y) => Math.exp(-((x - a) ** 2 + (y - b) ** 2) / s ** 2);
}
import { contour_plot } from "@mcmcclur/contour-plots"
import { show_x3d, create_surface, style } from "@mcmcclur/plotx3d"
style
// This version is clickable. I use it to add some points so I can
// ask my students questions about those points.
{
let pic = contour_plot(
([x, y]) => G(x, y),
[
[-4, 4],
[-4, 4]
],
d3.range(-2.04, 1.4, 0.2),
{ w: width / 2, h: width / 2 }
);
// Uncomment to enable the addition of points via a button click
d3.select(pic).on("click", function (evt) {
let [x, y] = d3.pointer(evt);
d3.select(pic).append("circle").attr("cx", x).attr("cy", y).attr("r", 5);
});
return pic;
}
Purpose-built for displays of data
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