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Why is //Evaluate needed for fcn passed to PP3D?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg46012] Why is //Evaluate needed for fcn passed to PP3D?
  • From: relishguy at pluggedin.org (Relishguy)
  • Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 05:21:22 -0500 (EST)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I am trying to run ParametricPlot3D using the following syntax from
Gray's book "Curves and Surfaces":

ParametricPlot3D[{viviani[1][t], {
    1 + Cos[t], Sin[t], 0}, {2 Cos[
      t/2], 0, 2 Sin[t/2]}, {2 Cos[t/2], 2 Sin[t/
        2], 0}, {0, 2 Cos[t/2], 2 Sin[t/2]}}
    (*why is this // Evaluate needed?if not, pp3d arg 
        is not a list with three or four elements ?? // Evaluate*),
{t,
        0, Pi}
    ];

The viviani function is defined as:

"t->viviani[a][t] is a Viviani curve on a sphere of radius 2*a. It is
the
intersection of the cylinder (x - a)^2 + y^2==a^2 and the sphere x^2 +
y^2 +
z^2==4*a^2.  To plot try viviani[1][-2Pi,2Pi]."

If I run this cmd as above I get the error "arg to pp3d is not a list
of 3 or 4 items". If I move the close-comment before the "//Evaluate"
it runs fine.

I looked at the help for Evaluate and PP3D, and my only guess is that
it could be that viviani is a compiled function (I don't even know how
to check this!).

TIA.

Regards..Roger

My Environment: Mathe 4.2 WinXP


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