This computer program is an exact emulation of a toy which was sold years ago called Magic Designer . It also once had the name Hoot Nanny. It is made out of metal and comes with circular paper and colored pens.
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Here is a description of this toy and how it is used: Original
Instructions in PDF
This program uses trigonometry to figure out how to draw these designs.
Without getting too technical this is how it works:
To draw a design, the paper is rotated a full circle. The position of
the pen moves around due to the motion of the gears. The program takes
many samples and asks, where is the pen at this point? Because the
number of pixels is not infinite (typical computers have 1024 by 768 or
800 by 600) a finite number of samples is all that is needed to get the
maximum possible accurate drawing. The length of the two arms is known
and the position of the pegs (which are those pins standing on the
gears) is calculated relative to a common center. Then, one of the
possible two points where the circles made by those two arms swinging
around their pegs (imagine that the arms were not connected to one
another) intersect, is where the pen is located at that moment. This
becomes a colored pixel.
The following is snapshot of the computer program. Pieces of it and how it is used are on the HELP PAGES.
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Free Download:
--> ** NEW 2009 Browser Version of Magic Designer **<--
Tested with latest Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8,7,6, Opera 9, Google Chrome 2, Safari 4.HELP PAGES Download Version
Basic
Advanced
Common
Ellipse Controls
Button Operations
Status Line and Keyboard
Notes
Users are invited to email to me their
saved designs (as MGS files). I will add
them to this site. Thanks.
OTHER PAGES
Physical Parameters of the metal designer
Programming Details including Math
I would like to know who my user community is:
Browser Version (2007) of Magic Designer
Third Party Links related to Magic Designer
Ken Katz's book on Science and God
Peabody The Penguin's Curve A Graph:
