Book Description

Practical Handbook of Spreadsheet Curves and Geometric Constructions presents a compelling description of how to use commercially available spreadsheets to design and create high-quality graphs of a variety of curves, including classical curves in mathematics. The book contains more than 65 models for the geometric construction of families of curves such as strophoids, pedals, involutes, and others. Models in the book are designed to be interactive so that users can experiment with them to produce eye-catching curves, designs, and patterns. Examples come from calculus, parametric equations, constructions of classical families, and graphs of conformal mappings of a complex variable. The author, a leading authority on spreadsheets, presents innovative techniques for using spreadsheet graphing to generate large families of lines and circles that describe various curves as envelopes of the families. The final chapter of the book discusses the use of commercial spreadsheets to create animation effects. The book is heavily illustrated, with more than 200 graphs and 60 tables. An accompanying 3.5" disk provides 25 selected examples written in Quattro Pro 2.0, Lotus 1-2-3 2.3, and Microsoft Excel 4.0. Designed for both experienced and novice spreadsheet users, Practical Handbook of Spreadsheet Curves and Geometric Constructions will be an invaluable resource for mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and computer scientists. The book will also benefit professional artists and designers interested in learning new techniques for producing mathematical curves using spreadsheet software.