written by Wolfgang Christian and Francisco Esquembre

The ODE Direction Field Plotter Model shows a graphical representation of the solutions to a first-order differential equation dx/dt=f(x,t) by plotting a grid of line segments with components that show the rate of change of the solution x(t) at each gridpoint.  This slope field visualization uses normalized line segments to provide a qualitatively feel for the solution geometry.  The solution curves can be sketched by connecting adjacent line segments. Clicking on an (x,t) point shows the exact solution starting at that point.

The ODE Direction Field Plotter Model was developed using the Easy Java Simulations (EJS) modeling tool.  It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive.   Double clicking the jar file will run the program if Java is installed.  You can modify this simulation if you have EJS installed by right-clicking within the map and selecting "Open Ejs Model" from the pop-up menu item.

• Download ejs_math_ode_DirectionFieldPlotter.jar - 1287kb Java Archive File

Last Modified June 11, 2014

This file has previous versions.

The source code zip archive contains an EJS-XML representation of the Direction Field Plotter Model.   Unzip this archive in your EJS workspace to compile and run this model using EJS.

• Download ejs_math_ode_DirectionFieldPlotter.zip - 39kb Compressed File

Last Modified April 16, 2012

This file has previous versions.