Graph 3D Equations: Free Programs & Techniques

[J Goodrich]

What are some good, preferably free, programs that one can use to graph 3D equations and possibly perform integration/differentiation techniques to?

 

[Galadirith]

Hi Goodrich, well you should check out http://www.gnuplot.info/" , it uses a command line interface shell, so you type your equations or data in and it then generate a 3D plot of that equation. It is a very widely used program.

Depending on what operating system your running on, and if you arnt comfortable with a CLI then there are other extra bits of software that add a Graphical user interface to be a bit more user freindly.

Hopefully that will help, you might need to root around GNUplots site and mabye a quick google to get the basic idea of how to work the program, but there are plenty of resources out there :D

EDIT: oh and I forgot a while ago I stumbled across this http://www.livephysics.com/ptools/online-3d-function-grapher.php" , which isn't nearly as diverse as GNUplot, but if you just want to visualise what an equation would look like that might be useful

 

[Sankaku]

You can use wxMaxima to generate GNUplot graphs of 3d functions. It also does whatever else you want... :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxima_(software )

 

[itsamespez]

Got an iphone? App store search quick graph. Its free and a pretty good 3d graphing calculator. Cant perform derivatives and such though.

 

[lCaelestis]

You could use http://wolframalpha.com"

 

[Livect]

Sage has some nice graphing abilities, and can graph 3D pretty well.

http://www.sagemath.org/

One can download it or run it online at sagenb.org.

 

[Mego05]

A tool that I use and love is GraphCalc, a sort-of open-source program. It's quite similar to a TI-85.

Note: If you don't use Windows, you're SOL. The source code is uploaded, but it's incredibly incomplete. If you're running OS X/Unix, and you really want to use GraphCalc, you can use WINE to emulate Windows so you can run it.

 

[MrNerd]

I found one that I think can do 3d as an iphone/pad/pod app. Unfortunately, it costs $19.99. But it did look pretty awesome. I found it in the featured categories, then back to school, then the math section. It could also do 2d and others things, too, I think.

 

[Lobezno]

Autograph isn't free, but you can download a 30 day trial and it's absolutely fantastic.

 

[Flavio]

Mathematica (but it is not free)

 

[anonymity]

Depending on what you want to do, mathematica may or may not be free.

If you want the action-packed, full version, then it will cost you.

However, if you are just curious what the graph z = x² + y² looks like, then you can go to http://www.wolframalpha.com/ and type in the Plot3D command.

There is a special syntax, but it is easy: Plot3D[ f(x,y) , {x, xmin, xmax}, {y, ymin, ymax}]

Type this command into the text box that appears when you go to the link above (replacing f(x,y), xmin, xmax, ymin, and ymax with your function and domain), hit enter, and a bunch of things will come up. The first will be a 3d Graph of your function (assuming you typed everything in correctly =s).

Also, if you are a university student, there is a very large chance that you will be able to get the student version of this for free (a full version of the program which you can install on your computer).

 

[Flavio]

Student version is not free (http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/how-to-buy/education/students.html).
Perhaps you mean that you can obtain a free copy from your university (which bought it).