Math Illustrations Tips

September 2010

Version 2.0 of Math Illustrations was released in time for Back to School 2010.

The new version contains many features requested by users of version 1.0: more complete annotation symbols for geometry, radian and degree based axis labeling for trig, area under a curve for calculus, and curves, sectors and segments for everybody.

In this issue of Tips & Tricks, we'll highlight some of these new functions.

Find out more here

Geometry Annotations [Video]

New geometry annotation features make it easy to create figures like the parallel line transversal shown here.

Tricks to creating this diagram are:

Set line style to have arrows at start and end
Use parallel constraint if you want the parallel lines actually to be kept parallel, use parallel annotation if you want a 'not to scale' drawing
Use Annotate / Congruent Angle, and set the congruence style to Tics

Trig Graph [Video]

Two new features are shown in the picture: axes displayed in radians, and area under an arc.

To make the axis display in radians:

Select the x-axis and right click.
Choose Axis Properties / Units / Radians

To create an area under a portion of the curve:

Draw an arc on the function (use Draw / Arc, click on the function then drag along the function)
Select the arc and use Construct / Area Under Arc

Notice, you can also make the y-axis display in radians (useful for inverse trig functions).

Regular polygon [Video]

Regular polygons are easy to create in Math Illustrations 2.0

To make a regular heptagon:

From the menu choose Draw / N-gon
Click the mouse on the location of the center, and drag to the location of the first vertex of the polygon.
A pentagon will appear, with an editable value n for the number of sides. Change this to 7.

Note: you can change the 7 to 8 and change your regular heptagon to a regular octagon.

Upgrade for only $19	Users of Math Illustrations version 1.0 or 1.1 can upgrade to version 2.0 for only $19 here. Don't have version 1? Math Illustrations 2.0 is available from $59 for a single user license here.