Some Pictures of Algebraic Curves

 

About the figures

The pictures of individual curves were plotted using software developed at The Geometry Center, at the University of Minnesota. Specifically, those pictures were plotted using the application "algcurve". The idea for this program was originally due to Professor Audun Holme of the University of Bergen. The program was written by members of the staff of the Geometry Center and was later incorporated into the Pisces platform.

After the output from algcurve was converted to .gif format, the images were embellished to put them in the form that is posted here. This included use of the unix program xpaint. If you have access to xpaint or other software for manipulating .gif files, you can download and experiment with copies of the curve images - for instance, seeing how various lines or circles intersect the given curve.

The two families of plane curves were drawn using Maple, more specifically the   implicitplot   command in Maple's Plots package.   One can make similar plots by using suitable Matlab graphics commands -- for instance the   aPlot   and   family   scripts described on the Math 5385 computer tools page.
 

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Prof. Joel Roberts
School of Mathematics
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
USA

Office: 351 Vincent Hall
Phone: (612) 625-1076
Dept. FAX: (612) 626-2017
e-mail: roberts@math.umn.edu
http://www.math.umn.edu/~roberts

The opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.