Three vs Epicycles
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Three
Explore celestial mechanics by simulating gravitational interactions between multiple celestial bodies. Users can add up to seven suns and an asteroid matrix to observe complex orbital behaviors and gravitational slingshot effects. The app allows for adjustments to gravity parameters for demonstration purposes.
- Multi-body gravitational simulation
- Add up to 7 suns
- Asteroid matrix simulation
- Observe gravitational slingshots
- Adjustable gravity parameters for demonstration
- Enlarged volumes for better observation
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1. For a batter observation, all volumes are enlarged by many times (the range of gravity in the real universe is much larger, and the planet is much smaller, so don’t worry about breaking the Roche limit) 2. Users can add up to 7 Sun, and randomly distribute them to nearby spaces. 3. Users can add an asteroid matrix. Asteroids have no gravity (negligibly small in the reality) and are only affected by Suns. (Well, in fact, it is afraid that the cpu is limited, and it is impossible to calculate the mutual gravitational force of too many stars.) 4. The three-body system is very unstable, and it is prone to gravitational slingshot effect. If a star is too far away from other stars, it may never come back. 5. However, users can also turn on an additional r/10 parameter to increase the gravitational force of stars at a long distance and make it return to the system (after turning on the parameter, it can only be used for demonstration, and the data has no reference value).
Epicycles
Explore the visualization of complex Fourier series through interactive epicycles. Create and analyze approximations of parametric curves and complex functions. Save animations and export custom terms for later use.
- Visualize Fourier series of 2D functions
- Create epicycles from drawn curves
- Save custom terms to documents
- Export animations as GIFs
- Adjust time and number of terms
- Interactive graphic elements
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The Epicycles app is a tool for exploring the visualization of complex Fourier series. It allows users to interactively create and visualize epicycles based on sampled parametric curves or predefined Fourier series terms. The app provides a visual representation of the complex Fourier series and demonstrates the approximation of complex-valued functions using epicycles. It can be used to study the properties of Fourier series, understand the concept of epicycles, and explore the visualization of complex functions in a fun and interactive way. • Visualizes Fourier series of 2D functions parameterized by time that are built-in, your own drawn 2D curves, or custom frequency components using the terms editor. • Custom terms can saved by exporting them to 'epi' documents in Files, and then later restored by importing them. • Cyclic animations can be saved to GIFs or snapshots saved to PNGs in the Photos library, with sizes 480x480, 720x720 or 1080x1080. • The main view consists of several functional items: Graphic Menu, Time Slider (t), Number of Fourier series terms slider (N), Current Function Menu. Graphic Menu: In the main view use the menubar in the graphic view to select options to hide or show the following graphic elements of the Fourier series visualization: • Circle: The blue circles that are the paths traced by the epicycles. These illustrate Euler’s formula for the complex valued terms of the Fourier series, expressing each complex exponential term as a pair (r cos(n t), r sin(n t)) that trace a circle of radius r, n times as time t varies in the period of length 2π. • Eye: The green circle that represents the value of the Fourier series at the current time. • Lightning: The red line segment path that consists of the joined radii of the epicycles circles, from the origin to the value of the Fourier series at the current time. • Pencil: The orange path that traces the current 2D function. • Star: The black path that traces the Fourier series 2D approximation of the current 2D function. Additionally in the menubar: • Magnify: Hide some views to make room for the expanded display the graphic. • Share: Save the graphic as an animated GIF or snapshot PNG in Photos library. • Play: Animate the graphic by periodically advancing the current time. • Info: Display internet resources conveniently in the app about Fourier series, epicycles and Euler’s formula. Time Slider (t): Adjust the time slider to see the state of all the graphic elements at any time within the time period [-π,π] on which the current 2D function is defined. Number of Fourier series terms slider (N): Adjust the number of terms included in the Fourier series approximation to the current 2D function. Frequency components in a partial Fourier series range from -N to N. The maximum value is limited to 100. As a guide tap the wand icon to set the number of terms to a value whose corresponding highest frequency can theoretically be reproduced with the given number of samples, based on the concept of Nyquist frequency with uniform sampling. For the built-in sample functions that sample count is fixed. The number of samples of your own drawn curve is variable, and displayed in the drawing view. The custom Fourier series using the term editor has known frequency components, limited to the range -20 to 20. The number of samples generated is sufficient for any selection in that range. Therefore in this case the wand sets N to the highest absolute frequency value of the terms. Current Function Menu: Use the segmented control to select from a variety of built-in 2D parametric curves or select the `?` item. Then you can either draw a 2D curve in the Draw tab view, or edit custom Fourier series terms in the Term tab view. In the latter case the app will numerically generate the Fourier series of a Fourier series, by sampling the summation of the series terms.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Epicycles at Free against Three's $0.99. Epicycles also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.0). Three's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On ratings volume, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Epicycles is free to download; Three costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Epicycles holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.
Three ships an update weekly, Epicycles every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and June 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Three | Epicycles |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 2.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 72 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 骐显 梁 | Limit Point Software |
Customer experience
Three
Epicycles
In-app purchases
Three
No in-app purchases
Epicycles
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Three free?
Is Epicycles free?
Which has better reviews, Three or Epicycles?
Do Three or Epicycles have ads?
Which is updated more often, Three or Epicycles?
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