Mathematics 308 - Fall 2002 - Euclidean geometry

Formalities

  • Fall term
  • Section 102
  • 11:00-12:00 M W F
  • Mathematics 203

In the course this fall, as in previous years, I will show how mathematics and computers can be used together to produce graphics of mathematical interest. The primary programming language to be used is PostScript. It is ideal for this purpose because its imaging model uses affine (and even, implicitly, projective) geometry in a crucial manner. Elementary 3D graphics including perspective, and perhaps something about the regular solids, will also be discussed. A 3D extension to PostScript will be introduced for this purpose.

Towards the end of the term, students will have to propose and carry out their own projects. You can even look at some previous years' projects:

  • M308 - Fall 1996. These were among the earliest a class ever did, and they wouldn't be acceptable now becuase of their low mathematical content. They do illustrate in many cases a high technical level.
  • M309 - Fall 1999. These are of much higher mathematical quality, although the quality varies widely. A few (Dawson, Ting) are spectacular.
There are therefore two components to the course: (1) Euclidean geometry and (2) graphics design, but of course they interact. Geometry is required to produce graphics, and graphics can be used to explain geometry.

Geometry

The principal sources are available on the Internet.

Graphics design

Students will be given accounts in the Mathematics Department undergraduate computer laboratory, and will also be able to run GhostScript or GhostView on PC-compatible machines or Macintoshes elsewhere. The documentation below is usually in PDF format, but occasionally in PostScript. You can obtain a PostScript interpreter at the GhostView & GhostScript home pages. For PDF files Acrobat Reader is available from Adobe.

We have PostScript help on our local help facility. In addition, the following are available on line:

More links to information on PostScript can be found at Luc Devroye's PS site.

Stuff

  • The diagnostic quiz
  • Second homework - due Friday, September 20.
  • How to hand in programs
  • Problems with the first homework:

    • Every PostScript file must start with the two characters %! (as emphasized in §5 of Chapter 1 of the course notes). It might run correctly in gsview without these characters, but it probably won't print and it won't open correctly as a .ps file inside a browser.
    • For Question #4, there will be no picture and no display in the graphics window. Nonetheless, put your procedure and your sample usage code on a separate page. If you use = or == there will be a message displaying in a message window. You can see the Message Window with File/Open Message Window or by pressing key "m" with the window active.

      There are special problems with computers running Windows:

    • To write PostScript files, use NotePad, because more sophisticated word-processors such as Word will ... well, process your words, and what you want is the plainest possible text. Unprocessed text.
    • To get your file to have a name whatever.ps, save it as a text file, which will likely give it an extension .txt. Then rename it (say, in Explorer) to have an extension .ps. (That all those Microsoft programs insist on the .txt extension is yet another example of how Microsoft knows better than you do what you want to do. Not.)
    • To run your files in ghostscript, associate the extension .ps to the program ghostscript (in Explorer). Then when you click on a file with that extension, it will open it in ghostscript. There are other programs you might associate to this extension, but in these (for example gsview) there is a way to open the file from within the program itself. This is not possible in gs, and as far as I can see this is the only way to run a PostScript program in gs on a Windows machine. The reason I want you to try running your files in gs is that it is a lowest common denominator among environments, whereas for gsview you may have customized your environment in a special way. For more information, look at this tip, or search in google for something like "windows explorer associate extensions".

      You can find more detailed instructions for how to deal with ghostscript (as opposed to gsview) on Windows machines at the ghostscript home page. Also, when ghostscript is installed, it puts a copy of the help file Use.htm on your system. At the site ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/ghostgum/ can be found older versions of gsview, in case you have trouble with one version. These may require older versions of ghostscript, too. (For Windows, you'll want an .exe file.)

      For Macintosh:

    • It seems that ghostscript is not available separately from gsview for OS 9. I guess we'll just have to live with that.

  • A nearly perfect exposition of Euclid I.35 by one of this term's students.
  • Third homework - due Monday, October 7.
  • Fourth homework - due Monday, November 4.
  • Fifth (and last) homework - due Friday, November 25.
  • Some sample 3d programs. These are a sequence of programs illustrating a few tricks of the ps3d package. Several are animated by page-turning. One thing to realize is that 2D and 3D graphics commands should be kept separate, because they affect different parts of the pipeline that turns ps3d commands into marked points on a page.
    • [ 3dA.ps ] A simple unit square with corners at (0, 0), (1, 0), (1, 1), (0, 1), seen flat on in `wire frame', and in orthogonal projection.
    • [ 3dA.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dB.ps ] The same square but rotated 45 degrees around the y axis, and in perspective.
    • [ 3dB.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dC.ps ] Now animated in a loop, rotating around the y axis.
    • [ 3dC.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dD.ps ] With the rotation axis shown.
    • [ 3dD.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dE.ps ] Now the square is rotating around its central vertical axis. It demonstrates that the effect of coordinate changes in ps3d as in ordinary PS is to move the frame of the coordinate system in which you are drawing. Note that the original square itself has been shifted left one-half unit.
    • [ 3dE.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dF.ps ] A rotating 2-sided square, with different sides shown by something special to this figure.
    • [ 3dF.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dG.ps ] The same effect, but by a more complicated and versatile technique, using the notion of a face of a 3d figure as an array of points plus visibility function.
    • [ 3dG.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dH.ps ] With shading from a light source.
    • [ 3dH.ps - source code ]
    • [ 3dI.ps ] With shadows (from a different light source).
    • [ 3dI.ps - source code ]
  • Drawing spheres
  • About projects
  • Some advice from a student on how to set file inclusion correctly in PostScript. I would appreciate any reports on how this works.
  • A good site for project ideas - Alex Bogomolny's cut-the-knot site

The projects