I wrote this program while attempting some 3-D graphics generation. I wanted to see how two ellipses ratating against each other would interact, and I found that they would produce some nice string-art type of images.
After playing with this for a while, I realized that it also presents a nice visualization of the astronomical phenomenon of precession, which occurs when one body is moving at the same angular distance as another, but covers a greater distance due to its greater diameter of rotation.
That is why this is being put out. It is by no means a breakthrough program. That would explain the limited (nil) interface. I didn't want to spend any more time on this than necessary.
Should anyone be interested in this, send me email with comments and suggestions.
Some notes:
The a component is the proportion that the radius is amplified across the x axis. For a perfect circle, it should be 1.0.
The b component is the proportion that the radius is amplified across the y axit. For a perfect circle, it should be 1.0.
The stepping factor is the amount that z (0 <= z <= 2*π) is incremented each line. It governs the space between lines. 0.1 seems to work pretty well.
I hope you at least get 10 seconds of interest out of this. Hell, it only took about 45 minutes to create.
This application was created on my Mac Plus (hey I'm buying a Power PC as soon as I see one) with THINK Pascal 4.0.
Other projects:
I'm also working on a simulated neural net with a visual interface. This is going to allow you to configure the net with a mouse. Also, it will be possible to alter each neuron's activation function. Outputs of each level will be placed in various windows for easy inspection.. I welcome any suggestions or comments on this as well.
