Maple Animation

In a new book John Putz describes the methods he uses to create animations with the powerful computer algebra system, Maple. Published in May, 2003, by Chapman & Hall / CRC Press, Maple Animation is a formal presentation in textbook style of the techniques that Dr. Putz has developed in creating the animated demonstrations he uses in his classes to illustrate mathematical ideas. "As mathematicians describe some process or another," he says, "we often have a moving image in our mind's eye. With a computer animation, we can give that image to our students, too. And we do our students a real favor in giving them a vivid moving image to tie to a concept, something concrete to associate with an abstraction. Maple Animation provides other mathematicians the means to do that," he explains, and "the techniques to implement their own  creative ideas."

During the winter term of 2003, Dr. Putz spent a sabbatical leave  in Florence, Italy. After finishing his book, he investigated a specific connection between mathematics and visual art. His study included early Renaissance attempts to represent three dimensions with fidelity in two, Filippo Brunelleschi's practical solution of the perspective problem, and the origins of projective geometry, the mathematical theory that underpins perspective methods.