This paper provides a brief introduction to using ray-traced computer graphics for creating illustrations to be used in physics teaching. The article focuses on Povray, a freely available ray-tracing software program. We have found that a ray-traced illustration produced with this software provides a final-image quality that is far superior to hand-drawn illustrations and those produced using standard click-and-draw computer drawing software. Techniques for illustrating time-dependent scenarios are discussed as well.

Topics
Computer graphics, Teaching
1.
R. Good, Classical Electromagnetism, 1st ed. (Saunders College Publishing, New York, 1999), p. vi.
2.
Pixar Animation Studios, 1200 Park Ave., Emeryville, CA 94608 (http://www.pixar.com).
3.
Povray's coordinate system is left-handed. This means (when looking at the computer screen) +x runs right, −x runs left, +y runs up, and −y runs down. +z runs into the page and perpendicular to it, while −z runs out of the page.
4.
We highly recommend Quicktime Pro from Apple Computer Corp. (http://www.apple.com). It will import a series of images (in many possible formats) and assemble them into a variety of popular computer-movie formats.
5.
For Windows: Pull down the “Render” menu, then select the “Edit Settings/Render” option. For Macintosh: With a Povray text file open, pull down the “Edit” menu, then select the “filename.pov settings” option. In both cases, you'll see a text box labeled “Command line” or “Command line options.” Type “final_frame = 20” to, for example, render 20 separate frames of your scene.
6.
See http://atom.physics.calpoly.edu/Graphics for more of our work.
7.
See, for example, http://www.vpython.org, http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html, and http://physics.nad.ru/.
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© 2006 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2006
American Association of Physics Teachers
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