Waves vs Vectors and Planes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Waves
Explore graphical solutions to partial differential equations with interactive activities. Visualize Fourier series and solutions to heat and wave equations, with options to customize conditions and save your work.
- Interactive PDE exploration
- Fourier series plotting
- Heat equation solutions
- Wave equation solutions
- Customizable boundary/initial conditions
- Save and analyze work
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Waves is an interactive environment for exploring graphical solutions to partial differential equations. Waves currently consists of three activities that explore Fourier series as well as series solutions to the heat and wave equations. Fourier is a tool for plotting a Fourier series that best approximates a periodic function. Diffusion plots solutions to the one-dimensional heat equation in space and animates the time evolution. Waves plots solutions to the one-dimensional wave equation in space and allows. In each of these activities you can specify the appropriate boundary and/or initial conditions. The app contains built-in examples as well as the option to save your work for future analysis. You can use Waves for homework, in-class activities or a new research project.
Vectors and Planes
This app visualizes and explains complex 3D geometry concepts, including linear and quadric structures and their intersections. It offers interactive 3D graphs and step-by-step calculation algorithms for a deeper understanding of mathematical principles.
- Visualize 3D linear structures
- Visualize 3D quadric structures
- Interactive 3D graphs
- Step-by-step calculation algorithms
- Combinations of structures
- Linear Algebra concepts
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Vectors and Planes App helps visualize and understand 3D linear and quadric structures and their intersections. List of linear structures and combinations: 1. Two vector combination. 2. Plane. 3. Line and plane combination. 4. Two plane combination. 5. Three plane combination. Current list of quadric structures: 1. Two sphere combination. 2. Standard ellipsoid. 3. Ellipsoid in a form of positive-definite matrix. 4. Standard cone. 5. Cone in a form of indefinite matrix. 6. 1-sheet hyperboloid. 7. 1-sheet hyperboloid in a form of indefinite matrix. 8. 2-sheet hyperboloid. 9. 2-sheet hyperboloid in a form of indefinite matrix. 10. Standard cylinder. 11. Cylinder in a form of positive-semidefinite matrix. 12. Hyperbolic paraboloid. 13. Elliptic paraboloid. Current list of combinations of quadric and linear structures: 1. Matrix ellipsoid and line. 2. Standard ellipsoid and plane. 3. Matrix ellipsoid and plane. 4. Matrix cone and line. 5. Standard cone and plane. 6. 1-sheet hyperboloid in matrix form and line. 7. 2-sheet hyperboloid in matrix form and line. 8. Matrix cylinder and line. 9. Elliptic paraboloid and line. 10. Hyperbolic paraboloid and line. Interactive 3D graphs are provided for all of the above. Step by step calculation algorithms are provided for all intersection point sets. Many of the algorithms are based on Linear Algebra concepts. Those, in turn, are explained in our “Matrix Solver Step by Step” app. Version 10 was completely redesigned. Developers hope to get feedback from users at graphmath@aol.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Vectors and Planes at 100% against Waves's 50%. Vectors and Planes also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months). Waves's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (16 vs 4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Waves holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 16 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Waves's written reviews are positive against 100% of Vectors and Planes's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Waves ships an update every 2 months, Vectors and Planes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Waves | Vectors and Planes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (16 ratings) — better | 4.5 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 16 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.4 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tim Lucas | Yuri Morozov |
Customer experience
Waves
Vectors and Planes
In-app purchases
Waves
No in-app purchases
Vectors and Planes
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Waves free?
Is Vectors and Planes free?
Which has better reviews, Waves or Vectors and Planes?
Do Waves or Vectors and Planes have ads?
Which is updated more often, Waves or Vectors and Planes?
Other comparisons
