3D-XplorMath is a Mathematical Visualization program. The older original version, written in Pascal, runs only on on Macintosh computers, but there is also a newer cross-platform Java version, called 3D-XplorMath-J, that while it still has fewer features and Exhibits, we hope eventually to give it all the functionality of the Pascal version.
The program presents itself as series of galleries of different categories of interesting mathematical objects, ranging from planar and space curves to polyhedra and surfaces to ordinary and partial differential equations, and fractals.
Morever, the carefully chosen default parameters and viewing options may be changed by the user so that each gallery is turned into a experimental lab.
Every exhibit has its own online documentation with suggestions for how to explore it further.
We hope that in this way the program will be useful to the interested layperson, the teacher, and the research scientist
We are in the process of producing a series of short tutorial movies explaining various features of the program and also some interesting ways in which it can be used. In particular, you can click here to see a basic introduction to 3D-XplorMath and some of its Exhibits.
Each Exhibit of the Pascal version of 3DXM has associated to it a so-called "About This Object" PDF file that explains the mathematics behind the picture. These files are also available here for separate download as a cross-platform zipped folder.
The group in charge of the 3D-XplorMath software development project and the related Virtual Mathematics Museum website project is the 3DXM Consortium, an international volunteer group of mathematicians. The Consortium gratefully acknowledges ongoing support for these projects by The National Science Foundation (DUE Award #0514781), and is grateful to the Mathematics Department of The University of California at Irvine , for hosting the 3D-XplorMath and Virtual Mathematical Museum websites.
NOTE: As is the case with numerous other older Macintosh programs, 3D-XplorMath does not currently work under version 10.7 (Lion) of the Mac OS, because Apple decided to remove the Rosetta PowerPC emulator. We regret this and are working on a solution. The Java version does still work under Lion.
This site is maintained by Richard Palais. Please send me email about any problems you find with it or any suggestions you have for improvements.