A spirals bonanza from a few simple polar formulas

We show how simple formulas with polar coordinates can create a variety of neat spiral effects with only a few lines of code. A brief overview of polar coordinates is provided. Continue reading A spirals bonanza from a few simple polar formulas

Stupid Shader Tricks: Fun with Arrows in Godot

We show how to use Shaders in Godot to add straight lines to an image. There is a brief discussion of shader basics, and then three examples of increasing complexity, starting with a single fixed arrow, then a shader with arrows in four directions, and finally a shader that can draw an arrow in any direction. Continue reading Stupid Shader Tricks: Fun with Arrows in Godot

Figuring Out Godot 2D Off-Screen Pointers and Bonus Picture-In-Picture

My main goal is to talk about making an “edge-of-screen” pointer that indicates the direction of objects that aren’t in the visible screen. Since this involves showing where objects are when those objects aren’t visible actually visible on the screen, I’m going to kill two CharacterBody2D’s with one stone and also show how you can use a “picture-in-picture” screen to test that the pointer works as intended. Continue reading Figuring Out Godot 2D Off-Screen Pointers and Bonus Picture-In-Picture

Embedding Desmos Activities in Blackboard

Desmos Activity Embedded in Blackboard Course

In this video, I show demonstrate how to embed Desmos Activities in a Blackboard class. Desmos Activities Desmos Activities build on graphs to allow the instructor complete control over how the students interact with the graphs, and allow student submission Continue reading Embedding Desmos Activities in Blackboard

Dancing Rectangles! – Building an Interactive Riemann Sum Demo in Desmos

||| Jump to Video ||| Jump to the Interactive Demonstration ||| I’ve been impressed with the free graphing calculator Desmos.com for quite a while now. It offers a very simple interface that is not intimidating to new users while providing Continue reading Dancing Rectangles! – Building an Interactive Riemann Sum Demo in Desmos

Platforms Supporting \(\LaTeX\) Online

Preliminary Comments This page hosts links to various platforms that support LaTeX for some form of online communication. Most of them are websites or apps, but some are systems for publishing websites. My personal experience with them ranges from having Continue reading Platforms Supporting \(\LaTeX\) Online

\(\LaTeX\) and Learning Management Systems

The goal of this post is to maintain some hopefully useful information about what support currently exists in popular Learning Managment Systems (LMSs) for displaying mathematics using LaTeX mathematics code, which is the standard for modern for communicating science and Continue reading \(\LaTeX\) and Learning Management Systems