Calculus Visualization Tools

Welcome to Bright Ideas Software®!

Bright Ideas Software produces advanced calculus visualization tools for students and educators. Our products are characterized by an innovative system of linked 2 and 3D graphs, presented simultaneously, providing users with a depth of understanding unattainable with other visualization tools. This capability, combined with a powerful symbolic math engine, places our products in a class by themselves.

We currently have two products available. OneStone® Pebbles are a series of free calculus visualization tools specifically designed to enhance the educational experience of students. Featuring a common User Interface to minimize any learning curve, OneStone Pebbles are stand-alone programs dedicated to specific topics in the calculus syllabus.

OneStone Math is a powerful, easy to use desktop Windows program designed for students and educators. It provides solutions and gives insight on topics in single and multivariable calculus, including derivatives and integrals of functions, as well as vectors in two and three dimensions. Version 1.4 features the same Surface of Revolution functionality available in the Surfaces of Revolution Pebble.

June 2015: Announcing a new OneStone® Pebbles module - Cross Sections! The new Cross Sections module joins three others included in the initial release: the Contour Diagrams tool, the Surfaces of Revolution tool, and the Curve Families tool. Additional tools are planned; see the Pebbles Home and Pebbles Version History pages for information on new products and upgrades.

The Pebbles series has been designed from the ground up to incorporate current educational theory correlating student's skill at analyzing covariant relationships in dynamic systems with their success in understanding fundamental concepts in calculus. Pebbles merge these theoretical concepts with Bright Ideas Software's experience in developing high-quality 2 and 3D visualization tools. This synthesis has produced software of deceptive simplicity, capable of a profound impact on student's grasp of covariational relationships. See the Pebbles Home Page for more information on the concepts underlying the Pebbles project.

OneStone Pebbles are implemented as free cross-platform Java™ Web Start applications and will run on most systems running Windows® Vista and above, Mac OS X, several Linux configurations, or Solaris®. They do require the installation of the latest version of Oracle Corporation's Java on a client machine, available from www.java.com. More information on can be found on the Pebbles Home Page and the Pebbles Installation page.