Illustration of a linear transformation mapping the unit cube to a parallelepiped while reversing orientation.
Highlighted pages
- Introduction to differentiability in higher dimensions
An introduction to the basic concept of the differentiability of a function of multiple variables. Discussion centers around the existence of a tangent plane to a function of two variables. - An introduction to the directional derivative and the gradient
Interactive graphics about a mountain range illustrate the concepts behind the directional derivative and the gradient of scalar-valued functions of two variables. - The idea of the curl of a vector field
Intuitive introduction to the curl of a vector field. Interactive graphics illustrate basic concepts. - Spherical coordinates
Illustration of spherical coordinates with interactive graphics. - The idea behind Stokes' theorem
Introduction to Stokes' theorem, based on the intuition of microscopic and macroscopic circulation of a vector field and illustrated by interactive graphics.
Recent news
Redesigned for small screens
by Duane Q. Nykamp on May 31, 2012Interactive Gallery of Quadric Surfaces
by Duane Q. Nykamp on March 14, 2012- More recent news
Recent pages
- Plotting line graphs in R
Basic commands to plot line graphs with one or more series in R
Added Jan. 16, 2017 - For-loops in R
How to use a for-loop in R
Added Jan. 12, 2017 - Visualizing the solution to a two-dimensional system of linear ordinary differential equations
An interactive plot of the the solution trajectory of a 2D linear ODE, where one can explore the behavior of the solution in the phase plane and versus time.
Added Sept. 20, 2016 - More new items
Highlighted applets
Illustration of a linear transformation mapping the unit cube to a parallelepiped while reversing orientation.
Demonstration of the effect of applying a function repeatedly to a given starting value.
Welcome to Math Insight
The Math Insight web site is a collection of pages and applets designed to shed light on concepts underlying a few topics in mathematics. The focus is on qualitative description rather than getting all technical details precise. Many of the pages were designed to be read even before students attend lecture on the topic, so they are intended to be somewhat readable introductions to the basic ideas.
You can browse the pages organized into threads, which are sequences through a subset of pages organized by particular topics. An index can help you find pages discussing a particular term. You can also search through the pages, applets, and image captions. A few pages allow you to change the notation system used to render the mathematics.
We hope Math Insight can help you understand key mathematical concepts. We welcome comments on how we can improve it.