Jeffrey Ely
"Nearly Normal"
translucent film, 24"x20", 2005
Jeffrey S. Ely, Mathematical Sciences, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
This image is the raytracing of just two objects, a sphere and a surface. The texture on the sphere is also related to such a sum, hence the title, "Nearly Normal." I wrote the raytracing code to first principles in the "C" programming language. The raytracing of F(x,y) employed an interval arithmetic based variation of interval bisection to solve the 43,200,000 equations involved. It took a 2.0 GHz Athlon 64 processor about 10 hours to render the 24'' x 20'' image at a resolution of 300 dots per inch. The translucent film on which the image is printed looks as good as photographic paper in normal lighting but looks especially vibrant when the lighting is behind the film and shining through it.
email: jeff@lclark.edu