Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 2.
Your Visual Response: Visualizing
You may want to inquire into detecting dimensions and variables. Develop in the mind your own story about a nature-related event you have
already encountered or learnt about, such as a rain, a snowfall, an avalanche, a flood, or an active volcano at work. First, describe it as a short
essay, and then design a project for visualization. How many dimensions would take the process you have described and how would you
characterize the variables depicting it? How many variables you need to list in order to look at this particular event with a multidisciplinary
perspective? What kinds of relationships could you draw on simple graphs to show the development of the event?
Visualizing Higher Dimensions
However, most of natural processes and events are
complex, dynamic, and multivariate - involving
many variable quantities, and thus require mul-
tidimensional visualizations. Computers provide
information in the form of billions of numbers
providing the coordinates, numerical values result-
ing from the measurements of variables.
Graphics may show many variables in 2D, just
telling stories about space and time and enhancing
the explanatory power of the time-series display.
One may model a solid object by approximating its
form with a set of plane polygons as faces. There
Most of natural processes and events are complex
and dynamic. In exploring high-dimensional
space, we need measurements of many variables.
For example, a three-dimensional location of the
object and its conditions such as temperature, pres-
sure or density may change in time. Thus, seven
variables: x, y, z axes, time, temperature, pressure,
and density describe the speed and state of this
object in space. A two-dimensional plot or graph
can only show one relationship between variables.
