SpaceCurve
I hope that almost all of this is self-explanatory.
1. Entering formulas
The three wide fields immediately below the main window
are the components of the parametrization.
The formula parser knows the following functions:
sin cos tan
sinh cosh tanh
arcsin arccos arctan
arcsinh arccosh arctanh
exp ln
and the following binary operations, with their usual precedence:
+ - * / ^
You can refer to the constants
pi and e
by name in your formulas. Use 't' for your parameter; other variable
names will be treated as if they are zero.
2. Changing the parameter
The two fields showing '-2' and '2' in the picture below hold the
minimum and maximum values of 't', respectively. The round,
horizontal slider immediately below them changes the current value
of the parameter. The round button next to the 'maximum t' field
lets you mark a point to serve as the basepoint for the arc-length
calculation.
3. Readouts
'K' and 'T' are curvature and torsion, respectively. 's' is arc-length
between the current (white) point and the marked (red) point. The 's'
field may be greyed out if arc-length integrals didn't seem to be
converging.
4. Adjusting the view
You can click and drag in the main window to rotate the view, and you
can Control-Click-and-drag to zoom in and out. The small slider on
the right controls the size of any decorations you're currently drawing.
The slider at the the very bottom of the screen can be used to increase
the number of points used to draw your curve. If your drawing doesn't
look smooth, drag this to the right.