← Joy of Math  ·  Glyph
Claude × Glyph showcases

Life in Glyph

Eight hand-crafted demonstrations of what one English prompt to an AI agent can produce when the AI knows how to write Glyph. Each page picks a subject anyone can recognize — a NASA mission, a heartbeat, a leopard, a sunflower, a steam engine, a pendulum, a rotary engine, an ancient gear-computer — and shows the full chain: prompt → JSON spec → byte-locked SVG → page. Designed to be enjoyed by a 5-year-old and a 70-year-old in the same sitting.

Life — biology, physics, the cosmos

Things that emerge, beat, grow, fly. Nine pages — four hand-authored, five compose-rendered (RFC #9).

Orion mission path
1 of 4 · space history

Orion's journey to the Moon

NASA's Artemis I, 25 days, three phases. Earth → outbound transit → distant retrograde orbit → return → splashdown.

▸ Prompt "Draw me NASA's Artemis I Orion spacecraft journey to the Moon and back. Show the outbound transit, a wide retrograde orbit, and the return arc. Beautiful for a 5-year-old, meaningful to a 70-year-old."
data.shape: "function" Read →
Heartbeat ECG trace
2 of 4 · human biology

A heartbeat at rest

FitzHugh-Nagumo (1961) — the relaxation oscillator that produces the spike-and-recover rhythm. 60 BPM. Lub-dub.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a heartbeat — a resting human heart at 60 BPM. Use FitzHugh-Nagumo so the trace has the real spike-and-recover rhythm. Beautiful for a child, meaningful for a grandparent."
data.shape: "trajectory" Read →
Gray-Scott leopard-spot pattern
3 of 4 · pattern formation

How the leopard got his spots

Kipling's 1902 just-so story, Turing's 1952 chemistry. A single seed in a uniform field, the Gray-Scott PDE, and 400 steps later: spots.

▸ Prompt "Draw me how the leopard got his spots. Use Gray-Scott reaction-diffusion at F = k = 0.062 — the leopard-spots regime. Start from a single seed, run 400 steps, let the pattern emerge."
data.shape: "pde-solve" Read →
Sunflower phyllotaxis pattern
4 of 4 · math in nature

A sunflower's secret math

Vogel's 1979 model — every seed placed at √n and n × 137.5°. The only angle that fills a disc without leaving gaps.

▸ Prompt "Draw me how a sunflower packs its seeds. Each seed n at radius √n, angle n × 137.5° (the golden angle). 200 seeds. Show why this angle and only this angle works."
data.shape: "recurrence" Read →
DNA double helix rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · molecular biology

DNA — the double helix

Two phosphate strands winding at ten base pairs per turn, against a deterministic starfield. The first scene rendered entirely from a compose spec — gradients, polylines, silhouette-paths, starfield.

▸ Prompt "Draw me DNA. The double helix. A-T blue, G-C red, against a starfield. Beautiful for a 5-year-old, accurate for a molecular biologist."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A bioluminescent jellyfish rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · marine biology

A jellyfish in the deep

Aurelia aurita — translucent bell, seven sinusoidal tentacles, bioluminescent dots glowing in the dark. Compose grammar from gradients, glow, ellipse, silhouette-paths, and a 80-dot plankton starfield.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a jellyfish in the deep. Translucent bell, sinusoidal tentacles, bioluminescent dots. Deep-ocean gradient — no horizon, just the medusa and the dark."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A neuron firing rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · neuroscience

A neuron firing

Pyramidal cell: dendrites collect, soma integrates, axon fires, synapse transmits. Silhouette-paths + radial-gradient soma + dual glow halos paint the cell that thinks.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a neuron firing. Soma with nucleus. Dendrites branching left. Axon with myelin sheaths. Synaptic terminals at the right. Warm halos around firing points."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A butterfly rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · entomology

A butterfly's wing

Order Lepidoptera. Bilateral symmetry: same wing polygon reflected across the body. Two pairs of polygons, gradient sunset → twilight fills, eyespots in white-and-black.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a butterfly, top-down view. Two pairs of wings, symmetric across the body. Forewings with sunset gradient + eyespots. Hindwings darker purple-blue."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A heart and circulation system rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · physiology · animated

A heart + circulation

Anatomical front view: four chambers, aorta, pulmonary trunk, vena cavae, lungs. Pencil-on-parchment. The heart pulses at 67 bpm via SMIL.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a heart with circulation. Four chambers, aorta arching, pulmonary trunk to lungs, vena cavae. Heart should pulse. Pencil-on-parchment."
compose · RFC #9 + RFC #6 pulse Read →

Machines of Wonder — what humans built

Drawn in pencil on parchment. Nine mechanisms — four hand-authored, five compose-rendered (RFC #9).

Slider-crank piston-position curve
1 of 4 · industrial revolution

Watt's steam engine

The slider-crank that converts piston motion to rotation — and started the Industrial Revolution. Non-sinusoidal kinematics in closed form.

▸ Prompt "Draw me James Watt's steam engine — the slider-crank mechanism. Pencil-sketch style. Beautiful enough for a child; technical enough for a mechanical engineer."
data.shape: "function" Read →
Damped pendulum oscillation
2 of 4 · accurate time

Huygens' pendulum clock

The 1656 design that gave humanity navigation-grade time. A damped harmonic oscillator, integrated for 60 seconds.

▸ Prompt "Draw me Huygens' pendulum clock. Use a 2D trajectory ODE for a damped pendulum, γ = 0.02. Pencil-sketch style. Show the gentle exponential decay envelope."
data.shape: "trajectory" Read →
Wankel epitrochoid housing curve
3 of 4 · modern engine

Wankel rotary engine

The 1957 design where the chamber wall and the moving part are the same epitrochoid. Three explosions per revolution instead of one.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a Wankel rotary engine housing. Use a parametric function with a 1:3 frequency ratio. Beautiful enough for a child to see the three lobes; clear enough that an engineer recognizes why a triangular rotor fits."
data.shape: "function" Read →
Antikythera compound-epicycle Moon trace
4 of 4 · ancient computer

The Antikythera Mechanism

~150 BCE — the world's oldest known analog computer. Bronze gears, ground by hand, that predicted lunar eclipses 1,600 years before the next mechanical computer.

▸ Prompt "Draw me the Antikythera Mechanism's Moon-pointer output. Use a compound epicycle: deferent at 1× speed + epicycle at 13× speed. Pencil-sketch style."
data.shape: "function" Read →
Hydraulic press rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · pressure

The hydraulic press

Pascal, 1647 — two cylinders, one fluid, one equation. A small force on the small piston turns into a much larger force on the large piston. Compose grammar from patterns, frames, silhouette-paths, and annotation leaders.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a hydraulic press — Pascal's principle. Two cylinders connected by a pipe, hatched fluid filling both. Small force in, big force out. Pencil-on-parchment."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A Dutch windmill rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · wind power

The Dutch windmill

A stone tower, brown cap, four rotating blades against a morning sky. The machine that drained the Netherlands. Compose grammar from gradients, patterns, polygons, ellipses — and an SMIL rotate-loop on each blade.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a Dutch windmill. Stone tower, four blades that turn, morning sky with sun and birds. Pencil-on-parchment. Blades rotate at one revolution per 8 seconds."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A suspension bridge rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · civil engineering

A suspension bridge

Two towers, one parabolic cable, hundreds of suspenders, a deck floating in mid-air. The cable hangs in a parabola because the load is uniform per horizontal distance. Roebling 1883 → Strauss 1937.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a suspension bridge — Golden Gate style. Two red towers, a parabolic main cable, vertical suspenders, a deck over deep water, soft sky."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A steam locomotive rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · steam power

A steam locomotive

Stevenson's Rocket (1829) → Mallard (1938, 203 km/h). Black boiler, red cab, four spoked wheels with a connecting rod. The wheels rotate via SMIL; coal-smoke puffs into morning sky.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a classic steam locomotive in profile. Boiler, cab, smokestack with smoke. Wheels with a connecting rod that rotate. Rails, ties, countryside."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
Radio waves broadcasting rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · electromagnetism

Radio waves broadcasting

Marconi, 1901. A lattice steel tower, a glowing antenna tip, seven concentric wave-rings expanding outward at slightly different periods. The trick every radio, wifi router, and cell tower refines.

▸ Prompt "Draw me radio waves emanating from a broadcast tower. Lattice steel structure, a thin antenna with a bright tip, concentric oval waves expanding. Night sky with stars."
compose · RFC #9 Read →

Architecture — humans shape light + stone

Three civilizations, three answers to the same problem: how do we build something taller than ourselves? All compose-rendered (RFC #9).

A Greek temple rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · ~500 BCE

A Greek temple

Doric order. Six fluted columns on a stylobate; triglyph frieze; pediment with akroterion. Height : diameter ≈ 5 : 1 — the Parthenon's blueprint, scaled down. Compose patterns + polygons.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a Greek temple — Doric order, front elevation. Six fluted columns, triglyph frieze, pediment with akroterion. Marble texture. Morning sky."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A Gothic cathedral rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · 12th–15th c.

A Gothic cathedral

Notre-Dame, Chartres, Cologne. Two flanking towers, a tall central spire, a stained-glass rose window. The pointed arch lets the cathedral reach for sky.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a Gothic cathedral — front elevation. Two towers with spires, a tall central spire, a rose window, pointed-arch windows below. Dawn sky."
compose · RFC #9 Read →
A modern skyscraper rendered by Glyph compose
RFC #9 · 1958 onward

A skyscraper at dusk

Sullivan's principle, Mies's gift: form follows function, glass + rhythm = the 20th century. Tower with 720 lit windows, antenna with a blinking warning light, dramatic sunset gradient.

▸ Prompt "Draw me a modern skyscraper at sunset. Tall glass tower with lit-window grid. Antenna with blinking red warning light. Dramatic dusk sky."
compose · RFC #9 Read →

The grammar tour

Page Glyph shape Math Year
Orion function (parametric) Three-phase ternary x(t), y(t) 2022
Heartbeat trajectory (ODE) FitzHugh-Nagumo coupled differential equations 1961
Leopard pde-solve (RD) Gray-Scott reaction-diffusion on a 32×32 grid 1952 / 1993
Sunflower recurrence (discrete iteration) Vogel's golden-angle phyllotaxis 1979
Machines of Wonder
Steam engine function (parametric) Slider-crank piston kinematics, closed form 1769
Pendulum clock trajectory (ODE) Damped harmonic oscillator 1656
Wankel rotor function (parametric) 1:3 epitrochoid housing curve 1957
Antikythera function (parametric) Compound epicycle, 1:13 frequency ratio ~150 BCE

Eight pages exercise four of Glyph's six data shapes. geodesic (light bending around mass) and streamline (vector fields) live in Joy of Math.

Why we made this

Most viz grammars are designed for charts — bars, lines, scatter plots. They handle survey data and revenue dashboards beautifully and stop there.

Glyph is designed to handle math, physics, biology, and engineering too. The same JSON grammar that draws a bar chart can also integrate an ODE, solve a PDE, walk a recurrence, or describe a 1769 slider-crank in closed form. The output is always the same kind of object: a byte-stable SVG that an AI agent can author from English.

"Life in Glyph" is eight hand-crafted proofs of concept, in two halves. The first half — Life — picks subjects from nature: a spacecraft's path, a heartbeat, a leopard's coat, a sunflower's seeds. The second half — Machines of Wonder — picks subjects from human engineering: Watt's slider-crank (1769), Huygens' pendulum (1656), the Wankel rotor (1957), the Antikythera Mechanism (~150 BCE). Each page walks the reader through: the English prompt a user might give Claude → the JSON spec Claude writes → the SVG the Glyph compiler produces → the animated page the user sees.

None of these required code from the user. All of them are deterministic — same prompt, same render, every platform, every time. That's the contract this grammar makes.

Explore Glyph

⭐ Star on GitHub Joy of Math · 9 demos Open the playground Learn the grammar