Math Software

Mathematics Software

Links Checked: 8 April 2001

Dear Reader, this notice will serve to inform you that I submit to the public a small machine of my own invention, by means of which you alone may, without any effort, perform all the operations of arithmetic, and be relieved of the work which has often times fatigued your spirit, when you have worked with the counters or with the pen.

- Blaise Pascal 1649

| General Programs | 3D Geometry | 2D Geometry | Curve Fitting |
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General Computer Mathematics / Symbolic Algebra Software
Derive (v. 5.0 2000/11) from Texas Instruments. For college and university level mathematics educators, DERIVE 5 offers an easy to use, powerful CAS teaching tool with maximum computational power and 3-D graphing capability at an affordable price. Derive does for algebra, equations, trigonometry, vectors, matrices and calculus what the scientific calculator does for numbers. You can easily solve both symbolic and numeric problems and see the results plotted as 2D graphs or 3D surfaces. Available for Windows 95/98/ME/NT or higher.

LiveMath (v. 3.01 2001/01) from LiveMath . LiveMath is a unique algebra and graphing program designed for the interactive investigation of mathematical relationships. With LiveMath, you type in equations and then manipulate them algebraically, evaluate them numerically, and display them graphically with the click of a button. LiveMath is a comprehensive symbolic algebra and graphing software package. With a special Internet plug-in, it can go live on the Internet. LiveMath is available for Windows, MacIntosh and Linux platforms.
Magma (v. 2.7 200/06) is a large, well-supported software package designed to solve computationally hard problems in algebra, number theory, geometry and combinatorics. Magma is produced and distributed by the Computational Algebra Group within the School of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Sydney. Magma is available for MS-DOS, Windows 95/98, and Linux.

Maple 6 (v. 6.0 2001/01) from Waterloo Maple Inc. Maple V Release 6.0 is a powerful interactive computer algebra system that provides a complete mathematical environment for the manipulation of symbolic algebraic expressions, arbitrary-precision numerics, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, and programming. Maple is available for all major computer platforms.

Mathematica (v. 4.1 2000/11) Mathematica is a commercial computer algebra system produced by Wolfram Research, Inc. What it does can be divided into the following category: symbolic computing, numerical computing, graphics, and programing. Outstanding features of v.4.0 include an integrated system of typesetting mathematical symbols, and all files being just an expression in the Mathematica language. The latter makes programing files natural. Mathematica is available for all major computer platforms.
MatLab (v. 6.0 2001/01) from Mathworks, Inc. MATLAB handles a range of computing tasks in engineering and science, from data acquisition and analysis to application development. The MATLAB environment integrates mathematical computing, visualization, and a powerful technical language. Built-in interfaces let you quickly access and import data from instruments, files, and external databases and programs. In addition, MATLAB lets you integrate external routines written in C, C++, Fortran, and Java with your MATLAB applications. MATLAB is available for all major platforms.
REDUCE (v. 3.7 1999/06) is an interactive program designed for general algebraic computations. REDUCE offers full source code availability, including the 'kernel'. Consequently, REDUCE is a valuable educational resource and a good foundation for experiments in the discipline of computer algebra. Many users do in fact effectively modify the source code for their own purposes. REDUCE is available for most major computer platforms except MacIntosh.
TI InterActive (v. 1.0 2001/02) from Texas Instruments. TI InterActive! enables high school and college teachers and students to easily investigate ideas in mathematics and science. Teachers can enhance students' learning through interactive lessons that encourage exploration, visualization, data analysis and writing. Students can use TI InterActive! to help them master math and science concepts, improve problem solving skills, create great looking homework, access and download teacher-prepared materials from the Internet, and more. Comes with a version of the Derive computer algebra system (CAS). A 30 day demo is available. TI InterActive is currently available for the PC only.

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3D Geometry and Visualization Software

3D-FilmStrip (v.7.1, 1998/12), is freeware by mathematician Richard Palais. 3D-FilmStrip is a program for visualization of objects and processes in geometry. 3D-Filmstrip has algorithms for displaying mathematical objects from many different "categories" (plane and space curves, surfaces, conformal maps, polyhedra, ODE, waves) and for displaying various mathematical processes associated with these categories. But 3D-Filmstrip provides content as well as viewing tools: each category has a "Gallery" of many pre-programmed objects, as well as dialogs for entering user defined objects from the category. The Gallery items are selected from a menu, while the user defined objects are entered by editing algebraic expressions defining an object of the category. 3D Filmstrip runs only on MacOS 7.0 or later.

Curvus Pro (v. 3.1.1, 2001/01), by Jean Bovet. Curvus Pro is a 2D and 3D ploting program similar to Graphing Calculator but having a different set of features. In addition to handling real-valued functions, it also plots parametrically defined functions, polar functions, and functions of a complex variable. It uses intuitive notation to simplify input. User-defined functions are supported. Useful features include plotting tangent lines, locating local extrema, drawing osculating circles, drawing and computing areas under a curve, and intersections of curves. Available for the Mac only.

KaleidoTile v.1 is an interactive 3D tiling freeware by Jeff Weeks. You can see how some polyhedra can be generated by mirroring tiles in space, and how one transforms into another. All this in real-time with dynamic control. Get your copy at The Geometry Center

NuCalc (v. 3.0, 1999/11) aka Graphing Calculator by Ron Avitzur et al. Version 1 of this software is well-known as it is distributed with every PowerMac. Version 2 adds the ability to graph relations in 3D, along with other features. Available for Mac and Windows platforms.

Rotater v.3.5 by Craig Kloeden is a real-time 3D visualization program. You supply Rotater an ASCII text file of coordinate data, then you can drag'n'spin the wire-frame representation in real-time with your mouse. A DOS version was written by Marijke van Gans. Several converter utilities has been written by different people for exporting data to Rotater format. A DXF to Rotater can be found in Craig's home page. A Mathematica to Rotater converter can be found at Xah Lee's Mathematica Packages page.

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2D Geometry and Visualization Software
Advanced Grapher (v. 1.62 2000/12) by Robert Serpik. Advanced Grapher is an award-winning graphing, curve fitting and calculating software. A full-functional 30-day trial version of Advanced Grapher is available. Register it if you like the program and wish to use it after the evaluation period. Advanced Grapher allows to plot high-quality 2D graphs of equations, inequalities and tables. You can also perform regression analysis and various calculations. Available for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000 operation systems (or higher).

Cabri Geometry II (v.1.1.8 2000/6), developed in France, a direct competitor to Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP). Cabri in general is more powerful than GSP. For example, inversion, regular n-gon, and conic sections are built-in. Conics are created by five points. Drag those points will change the conics accordingly. The basic constructions are point, line, point on object, intersection of two objects, circle, arc, and conic. The latter allows you to place 5 points on the worksheet and move them around to see how the corresponding conic section passing through those points changes. The equation of the objects can also be displayed so that you can see coefficients change, mixed terms appear or disappear, and other changes in the equation as you modify points or the entire object. Available for PC and MacIntosh platforms.
A demo version is available from Texas Instruments. For Java based Cabri, go to Cabri-java or to Creating Live Geometry, where you can create dynamic geometry immediately.

Cinderella (v. 1.0 1999/01) The interactive geometry software Cinderella is a full-featured program for geometric explorations. Among its highlights are the automatic creation of HTML-pages that incorporate interactive constructions, animations or even exercises. In Cinderella you have "native support" for non-euclidean geometries. That means that if you want to do, for instance, hyperbolic geometry, you do not have to mimic this with Euclidean constructions, you switch to "hyperbolic" mode instead. Written entirely in Java, it will run on any machine with the Java Runtime Library. A demo is also available.
Dr Geo
Dr Geo is a GNU software. This means you don't have to pay for it . Also, you have access to the source code. You can modify and diffuse it as long as the same distribution license is used. Dr Geo is released under the GPL license. To know more about it and the Free Software Foundation you can refer to the GNU web site. Dr Geo is an interactive geometry software. It allows the construction of interactive geometric figures and it's an educational oriented software. Currently available for the PC/Windows platforms, although releases on other systems are planned.
EUKLID (v. 2.3 2001/01) is software about dynamic geometry from Roland Mechling. You can create geometrical constructions on the screen just the way you do it on a paper. But afterwards, you can take i.e. a basic point of your drawing and drag it to another place - and the geometrical relations between all objects are preserved. EUKLID is able to: create locus lines; gather up geometrical construction commands to macros; colour your constructed objects; measure distances and angles; print out your drawing with accurate dimensions; export your drawings into the clipboard. EUKLID is available for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/... and higher.

Geometer's Sketchpad (v.3.10 2000/10) is an interactive plane geometry software program available from Key Curriculum Press, where you can also find a demo. The demo version does not allow Save or print, otherwise it is complete. A free JAVA version is available from the JavaSketchPad Centre. Geometer's Sketchpad can be thought of as a dynamic compass and straight-edge on your computer. Objects drawn are linked by property. For example, after constructing a circle inscribed in a triangle, you can then change the shape of the triangle by dragging a vertex, and the inscribed circle will follow in real-time. This property linking allows you to contstruct fractal, tiling, and it easily leads you to anticipate theorems in classic geometry.

GrafEQ (v.2.0.9, 2000/11) GrafEQ is a 2-dimentional plotting program especially good at plotting relations. GraphEq is a graphing program for creating high quality graphs of functions and relation in the plane. Figures can be defined by specifying an equation, an inequality, or a relation. Regions can be designated by color and a variety of tools allow for enhancing the image. Most program have difficulties plotting relations because their solutions are difficult to find. GrafEQ bypass this difficulty by using a substractive algorithm. It maps pixels on the screen into the plot range, then delete pixels that do not contain solutions. Available for Mac and Windows platforms. A fully functional demo is available.
Graphmatica (v. 1.6 1999/05) from kSoft Inc. is a powerful, easy-to-use, equation plotter with numerical and calculus features. Graph Cartesian functions, relations, and inequalities, plus polar, parametric, and ordinary differential equations. Up to 25 graphs on screen at once. Offers copy to clipboard (bitmap and WMF), Button Bar, on-line help and demo files. A tool for students and teachers of anything from high-school algebra through college calculus. Available for MS DOS, Windows 3.1/95/98/NT.

Groups & Graphs (v.2.5.5, 1998) by Bill Kocay. Groups and Graphs is an excellent tool for studying - groups and graph theory. For Mac and Windows.

Isoptikon (v. 2.4 1997/06) is freeware from the University of Crete. Isoptikon is a program to study and draw Apollonian (isoptic) curves, which are curves of degree 3 (cubics). It also contains facilities which allow the user to draw and print with precision shapes of elementary Euclidean geometry. Available for Windows and MacIntosh platforms from many freeware/shareware sites.

Kali (v.4.0) is freeware from The Geometry Center by Jeff Weeks. It is an interactive program for drawing figures of plane symmetry. The program is so appealing that it is suitable for grade-level kids too. An user selected symmetry pattern automatically appears based on whatever you draw on the screen. Available for Mac, Unix, and Java.
NonEuclid by Joel at Rice University. NonEuclid software (written in 100% pure Java) provides a platform independent application together with a 25 page, illustrated, hypertext introductory explanation of Hyperbolic Geometry. NonEuclid is a software simulation offering straightedge and compass constructions in Hyperbolic Geometry for use in high school and undergraduate education. You must install a browser that is Java 1.1.6 enabled before you can run NonEuclid. Netscape Communicator 4.7 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 are Java 1.1.4 enabled.

RepTiles (v. 2.0.1) is a plane tiling shareware. RepTiles is capable of generating all possible periodic tilings of the plane. The authors claim if you are a mathematician, the program is for interactively designing and systematically generating periodic 2-dimensional tilings and patterns and studing symmetry and 2-dimensional geometry. If you are a crystallographer or chemist, it will enumerate all possible 2-dimensional crystal-structures. If you are a designer or if you are just interested, you can design complex and interesting patterns or explore a whole new world of fascinating periodic structures. This program is a bit mathematical, but can be fun for the layperson. It is a rare tool for the crystallographer and for mathematicans.
SuperGraph (v.1.5.1, 1996) by Mike Epstein is another relation graphing program distributed as shareware. It is fast and very well written. You can get your copy at http://www.bozosoft.com/supergraph/index.html

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Curve Fitting Software
Advanced Grapher (v. 1.62 2000/12) see above by Robert Serpik. Provides capability for some regression analysis and various calculations.
Axum (v. 6.0 2001/02) by Mathsoft is a technical graphing and data analysis package for scientists, engineers, financial analysts, market researchers and anyone else who needs to portray data and information in a rich graphical form. In addition to its powerful graphics capabilities, Axum provides a full range of data analysis functions such as automatically calculated error bars, data smoothing, curve fitting, descriptive statistics, frequency analysis and regression analysis to help users more fully understand relationships in their data. Users can create complex 2D and 3D graphs using data input from MathSoft’s Mathcad or S-PLUS or from a wide array of other sources including spreadsheets, databases and text files. Axum is also the only technical graphing package to offer a link with PowerPoint, allowing users to create PowerPoint 7.0 presentations automatically from Axum graphs. Axum is available for Windows 95,98, or NT 4.0 or higher.
EasyPlot (v.4.0 1998/10) available from Spiralsoft. EasyPlot runs under Windows 3.1 95/98 /NT. A demo is also available.

Graphical Analysis from Vernier. This award-winning program is an inexpensive, easy-to-learn program for producing graphs of experimental data. Graphical Analysis creates a graph as the students type in their data. The graphs follow accepted scientific graphing conventions. Graphs can be scaled and the style of graphs can be changed to best display the data. Data analysis features include Curve fitting, Integration, Tangent line, Interpolation, and Calculated columns. Graphs, data tables, text, FFTs, and histograms can all be displayed in various windows. Data may be imported from the clipboard, a text file or TI graphing calculators (requires TI-GRAPH LINK™). This makes Graphical Analysis an excellent way of moving data from the calculator to your computer for further analysis and printing. A demo is available. Windows or MacIntosh platforms are supported.

HiQ (v. 4.0 1999/01) is available from National Instruments. HiQ is an interactive problem-solving environment where you analyze, visualize, and document real-world science and engineering problems. HiQ solves real-world problems using a notebook methodology that combines interactive analysis, data visualization, and report generation in a single, intuitive environment. Using the interactive tools of HiQ, you can create data objects, analysis, and graphs that you can move, rotate, and customize to bring out the important points in your data. And, when you are finished, you have a complete, interactive technical document to share your results with others. Available for Windows 95/NT and Macintosh/Power Macintosh platforms.

Pro Fit (v. 5.5.1 2000/11) is available for Mac platforms from Quantumsoft. Pro Fit is an application for scientific data and function analysis on the Macintosh. A fully functional demo is available. Its main capabilities are:
                         A full drawing editor for creating graphs and plots.
                         Spreadsheets for storing and manipulated data of arbitrary size.
                         Unique fitting capabilities.
                         Built-in compiler for customizing and scripting.
                         Expandability through plug-ins and Apple Script.
                         Fully recordable.
                         Ease of use, powerful on-line help.
SigmaPlot (v. 2000 2000/04) Available from SPSS. SigmaPlot has very good three-dimensional capabilities and imaginative graphics features. SigmaPlot has excellent ternary plot features and the best customized editing features of any of the substantial statistical and graphical packages. It also has a 'regression wizard' that includes a true abundance of equation categories, each of which contain an entire family of possible curves, giving rise to over a hundred possible curve types. Any of these curves can be plotted automatically on any x - y plot and is then accompanied by the corresponding statistical output. Current versions of SigmaPlot will only be supported on the Windows platforms.
SupaStat Data analysis for schools and colleges. SupaStat has, with its constant improvement over the years, proved to be one of the foremost data analysis programs available. And now SupaStat for Windows offers even more power, and at the same time has been made more flexible and easy-to-use. Download from SPA   Available for Windows 95/98/NT.

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Geometric Games and Puzzles
Origami
Eric Anderson's annotated list
Joseph Wu's master list. This is the "master" origami page, with links to nearly every other origami site on the web, diagrams, photo galleries, information about origami, and much more.

Otello v.2 by Ron Hayter plays the game othello, aka reversi. Two player take turns placing disks of his color on a 8x8 square board. Your opponent's pieces that lie between your pieces will be changed to your color. The winner is the one with most pieces on the board. Otello is postcard-ware.

Polyominoes (v.7, 2000/01) is a tiling game with polyominoes, written by Kevin Gong. In this program, you try to fit a set of polyominoes (connected squares) into a given shape. Both the pieces and board shape are editable. In another mode, two players take turns fitting polyominoes into a give shape. The first without a fitting piece losses. A Windows and java version is also available.

Tangram 3.2 by S.T. Han. Tangram is a popular tiling puzzle that probably originated in China. The goal is to arrange a set of seven tiles to match a given shape. This software's interface is beautiful and well-designed. If you paid your shareware fee, thousands of shapes are available for play. You can edit your own shapes too. Windows and MacIntosh versions are available. For tangram and other games on DOS/Windows systems, check out stargraphics

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