Here is an implementation of a trigonometric function, plotted as a 2D graph. Interactive controls are available to alter the graph dynamically. The sine wave plotted incorporates parameters commonly used in physics. You can directly control the amplitude (A), phase (phi), and the angular frequency (k).

Try it now! Click on the slider bars in the Flash example above to change the sine waves properties.

There are also some basic graph options that can be set via check boxes, these can be toggled on/off. Finally, there is a useful function that is a good thing to have in any application, and that is a reset button. This simply resets the graph back to the state when first loaded. This example is coded using ActionScript 2.0.

Extending this example to graph any function is fairly straight forward and could handle some quite complex equations with multiple parameters. The range of each axis would have to be carefully rendered though to make sure the graph ‘zoom’ was correctly set, otherwise the graph may not display correctly.