Timesaver

[stoutfellow]

In my research on geodesics on prisms, I deal with things called "turn sequences", each of which may generate a geodesic. There are some simple necessary conditions I can use to weed out some sequences, but in general, the task has been a tedious one. I start with the turn sequence, and sketch out, by hand, a diagram. From this, I read off various coordinates, which I hand off to the computer. It then provides me with a list of quadratic inequalities, and I have to determine whether those inequalities are compatible. This has generally involved using Mathematica to graph each of them, or enough of them to show that they're incompatible. Long, boring, and vulnerable to mistakes.

I don't know why it took me so long, but I finally figured out how to automate the process. I now have a small suite of routines which allow me to feed in a turn sequence and get back a graphical representation of all of the inequalities, clearly showing whether they are compatible. As a bonus, I can use the resulting graph and another couple of routines to get an actual display of the corresponding geodesic (if the inequalities are compatible).

I'm rather pleased with myself. Unfortunately, there are so many other things going on that I won't have enough time to devote to *using* these tools for the next while. Ah, well....