Art created through the process of finding roots of functions
Intro
This web application demonstrates the use of RApache as a web service to explore images created through the process of finding roots of functions. It was inspired by and makes heavy use of Francois Pinard's NRart software, an R package which creates images and movies with the Newton-Raphson method.
How To
Users start off by typing in a function (usually a polynomial but it can also include logarithmic and trigonometric functions) in terms of the variable x and then clicking the Draw button. A nicely colored graph will appear in the main portion of the window. Next, the user can explore the image by clicking on the buttons from the left panel. Pan buttons allow one to move left, right, up, down, or center the complex plane. Zoom buttons allow one to zoom in or out. Step buttons control the number of Newton-Raphson iterations performed. Points increase or decrease the plane by a factor of 100 in both the x and y direction. Size increases or decreases the size of the image.
More advanced R users can click on the color link to type in a color expression, which must return a vector of R colors. The default is rainbow(360,start=0,end=1). Another interesting example is c("black","white").
Finally, users can rate their images as either a Masterpiece, a Classic, or just plain Worthy to be in the Gallery.
