Winter 2012
MATH 224: Multivariable Calculus and Geometry. I
Branko Ćurgus


Sunday, March 18, 2012


Wednesday, March 14, 2012


Thursday, March 8, 2012


Wednesday, March 7, 2012


Tuesday, March 6, 2012


Monday, March 5, 2012


Sunday, March 4, 2012


Tuesday, February 28, 2012


Monday, February 27, 2012


Saturday, February 18, 2012


Wednesday, February 15, 2012


Tuesday, February 14, 2012


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Clicking on the image will cycle through 8 different individual scenes of this movie with various values of $x_0 \in [0,\pi]$.



Tuesday, February 7, 2012


Tuesday, January 31, 2012


Monday, January 30, 2012


Wednesday, January 25, 2012


Thursday, January 21, 2012


Tuesday, January 17, 2012


Thursday, January 12, 2012


Wednesday, January 11, 2012


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

  • Here is an animation which shows level surfaces of the function $w = x^2 + y^2 - z^2$ studied in Example 3 in Section 12.5.

    Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.


    Five of the above level surfaces.


  • Here is the Excel file which I used today. You can use it to explore linear functions.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

  • Today in class I demonstrated few 3-d plots in Mathematica version 5.2. On some campus computers we also have Mathematica version 8. These versions are not compatible. For this class I will only post version 5.2 notebooks since on campus there are more computers with version  5.2.
  • Here is the Mathematica file that I used. It is called 3DGraphs.nb. As before, right-click on the underlined word "Here"; in the pop-up menu that appears, your browser will offer you to save the file in your directory. Make sure that you save it with the exactly same name. After saving the file you can open it with Mathematica. You will find Mathematica on all campus computers in
    Start -> All Programs -> Math Applications -> Mathematica.
    Open Mathematica first, then open 3DGraphs.nb from Mathematica. You can execute the entire file by the following manu sequence (in Mathematica):
    Kernel -> Evaluation -> Evaluate Notebook.
    There are some more instructions in the file.
  • Here is another Mathematica notebook that you might find useful.
  • If you have problems running files that I posted please let me know. If you spend some time learning how to use these files you will enhance the understanding of math that we are studying and also learn the basics of these software packages.
  • Here are some good Java applets for exploration of functions of two variables. At the end is a comprehensive list of web math tools from MIT.
  • Here we explore the graph of the function $z = y^2 - x^2.$
    • First, an animation which shows level curves of the function $z = y^2 - x^2.$

      Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.


    • Next, an animation of slices parallel to $yz$-plane. The function is $z = y^2 - x^2,$ as above.

      Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.


    • Next, an animation of slices parallel to $zx$-plane. The function is $z = y^2 - x^2,$ as above.

      Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.


  • Here we explore the graph of the function $z = y^3 + xy.$
    • First, an animation which shows level curves of the function $z = y^3 + xy.$

      Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.


    • Next, an animation of slices parallel to $yz$-plane. The function is $z = y^3 + xy,$ as above.

      Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.


    • Next, an animation of slices parallel to $zx$-plane. The function is $z = y^3 + xy,$ as above.

      Place the cursor over the image to start the animation.



Tuesday, January 3, 2012

  • The information sheet
  • Notes on Chapter 12
  • Related Wikipedia links:
    • Disk. Pay attention to the notation used in this (and all other) Wikipedia link. That is the standard mathematical set notation that is unfortunately not used in our textbook.
    • Sphere. There is too much stuff in this Wikipedia link. Some of it we will cover later in this class. Still, you can recognize few equations on this page. Pay attention to the sentence:
      In higher mathematics, a careful distinction is made between the surface of a sphere (referred to as a “sphere”), and the inside of a sphere (referred to as a “ball”).
      The moral here is that in mathematics words do have precise meanings. Pay attention!
    • Euclidean distance. This page can give you a teste how the distance that we talked about today fits into a broader context.
  • Here is the Excel file that I used in class today. In the file I give a step-by-step explanation how to create such files. You can explore other functions by creating similar Excel files.
  • The proof of the distance formula in space is based on the Pythagorean theorem. As you can see in this Wikipedia page, there are many different proofs of the Pythagorean theorem.
  • Here you will find a visual proof of Pythagorean theorem that I designed.