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Undergraduate Research at GANG
Summer 2001


Software

     In order to explore certain kinds of curves, we have made a program which can generate a surface.

    The program takes a given U, the mean curvature half density, inputted as either a user-drawn graph, or as a constant. The program then takes the given U and uses it to solve the differential equations for h1 and h2. The program solves for h1 and h2 using the Runge-Kutta method.

    Having calculated h1 and h2, the program then calculates X1, X2, and X3, using the  formula stated in the math section. Then, using these formulas for X1, X2, and X3, the program generates the graphic files and a graph of the generating curve.

    We have two versions of the program:

           The application version- you need to download the .class files here. To run the program, you will need to have a Java Run Time environment. Type in "java  Cp" in the Dos-prompt or your unix-shell.  This program will writes a .off (geomview) file and a .wrl (vrml) file on your hard drive. You will need viewers to view these files. (Recommended for users)

           The applet version- you can also visit our page for the applet version of the program to get a general idea of what we are doing. This version is convenient, but the speed and the quality of the picture is relatively poor.

   For more detailed information on how to use this program, please click here

   If you need the source code,  please  feel free to contact us.