Steve's XY Grapher

The Program

The XY Grapher program creates xy-graphs in a variety of ways. You may enter equations to graph in rectangular coordinates or polor coordinates, or you may enter parametric equations. You may also define plots by entering lists of points, or by reading in lists of points from files.

The program saves a created plot in .svg format, i.e., in Scalable Vector Graphics format (or SVG format). The SVG format allows that the plot may be enlarged or reduced without loss of clarity: the plot will always print to the resolution of which your printer is capable.

Most browsers, such as "Chrome," support the SVG format. So, SVG files created by XY Grapher can be put into such a browser and printed. If you have a subscription to "Office 365," you may download and install a patch which will allow you to import the SVG file directly into Microsoft Word. If you do not have an "Office 365" subscription, you can convert the SVG file to an .emf file, i.e., to a Windows Enhanced Meta-File (or EMF file), which also is vector-based, with the Inkscape program, which also is free. The EMF file then can be imported directly into Microsoft Word.

The XY Grapher program is written in Java, so it will run on any operating system that supports Java, e.g., Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. (see Installation Instructions below). The program is free on an "as is" basis.

Examples

Here are six examples of plots generated with XY Grapher.

Example #1.

This plot shows the graph y = ( 2x³ - 7x² - 7x + 30 )  / ( x² + x - 6 ), along with the end-behavior function y = 2x - 9 and the vertical asymptotes x = -3 and x = 2.

Example #2.

This plot shows the graph y = ( x⁴ + 1 )  / ( 2x² + x - 15 ), along with the end-behavior function y = ( 4x² - 2x + 31 ) / 8 and the vertical asymptotes x = -3 and x = 2.5.

Example #3.

This plot shows the polar graph r = 9cos( 4θ ), 0 ≤ θ ≤ 2π.

Example #4.

This plot shows the parametric equations x = 9sin( 3t ) and y = 9cos( 5t ), 0 ≤ t ≤ 2π.

Example #5.

This plot shows the graph y = 0.4126x + 1.9943, which is the linear regression best fit to the plotted points shown.

Example #6.

Finally, this plot shows the graph of a piecewise-defined function, which might be useful for a Calculus class.

Installation Instructions

1. Click on the XY Grapher.jar link below and download the file to your Desktop.
   
   
2. To run the program, double click on the downloaded "Java" icon. That's it!

Download

XY Grapher.jar   (78,875 bytes)

Problems with the Program

If you have any problems with the program, or any comments about it, you can e-mail steve@harren.us.