Mathematica: Interactive mathematics in the web browser
I have been a huge fan of the Wolfram Demonstrations project ever since it was launched and have even contributed a few simple demonstrations myself. The project contains thousands of fully interactive mathematical demonstrations that anyone can play with using Wolfram’s free player software and it’s just got a whole lot better.
Now, you can interact with these demonstrations right from the web-browser!
Take the image below, for example. If you don’t have a copy of Wolfram’s new cdf (computable document format) player installed then you’ll just see a static image. Install the player (or Mathematica 8 and the browser-plug in), however, and this image will turn into a fully interactive example.
At the moment the browser plug-in only works on Windows and Macintosh but hopefully a Linux version will be on the way soon. Stay tuned to WalkingRandomly for in-depth tutorials on how to go from Mathematica code to fully interactive mathematics in your browser. The results can be incorporated into the Wolfram Demonstrations project or embedded in your own website like I’ve done here.
Links
- Simulating Harmonographs – Wondering what the above demo is based on? Find out here.
- Wolfram Demonstrations Project – Freshly re-designed as of 8th March 2011
- CDF Player – Download Wolfram’s new (and free) Computable Document Format (CDF) player