Graphic Discovery (eBook)

A Trout in the Milk and Other Visual Adventures

Howard Wainer (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2013
208 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-4927-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Howard Wainer is Distinguished Research Scientist for the National Board of Medical Examiners and Adjunct Professor of Statistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of fifteen other books.

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Good graphs make complex problems clear. From the weather forecast to the Dow Jones average, graphs are so ubiquitous today that it is hard to imagine a world without them. Yet they are a modern invention. This book is the first to comprehensively plot humankind's fascinating efforts to visualize data, from a key seventeenth-century precursor--England's plague-driven initiative to register vital statistics--right up to the latest advances. In a highly readable, richly illustrated story of invention and inventor that mixes science and politics, intrigue and scandal, revolution and shopping, Howard Wainer validates Thoreau's observation that circumstantial evidence can be quite convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk. The story really begins with the eighteenth-century origins of the art, logic, and methods of data display, which emerged, full-grown, in William Playfair's landmark 1786 trade atlas of England and Wales. The remarkable Scot singlehandedly popularized the atheoretical plotting of data to reveal suggestive patterns--an achievement that foretold the graphic explosion of the nineteenth century, with atlases published across the observational sciences as the language of science moved from words to pictures. Next come succinct chapters illustrating the uses and abuses of this marvelous invention more recently, from a murder trial in Connecticut to the Vietnam War's effect on college admissions. Finally Wainer examines the great twentieth-century polymath John Wilder Tukey's vision of future graphic displays and the resultant methods--methods poised to help us make sense of the torrent of data in our information-laden world.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.10.2013
• Zusatzinfo: 14 halftones. 93 line illus. 8 tables.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Angewandte Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Abraham Wald • adage • Adam Ferguson • Addition • aphorism • Boulton and Watt • Calculation • Career • Catherine of Aragon • causal inference • clerical error • compound interest • Cyril Burt • David Hilbert • diagram • Educational Testing Service • Edward Albee • Edward Tufte • Eric Temple Bell • estimation • Explanation • Exploratory data analysis • exponential growth • Extrapolation • Fellow of the Royal Society • Flatland • Francis Galton • Grade inflation • Grapher • Harold Hotelling • Harvard Law School • Harvard University • H. L. Mencken • Howard Wainer • Illustration • inference • Infographic • Information Overload • Information Theory • Instance (computer science) • Introductio in analysin infinitorum • Invention • Jimmy Carter • John Graunt • John Playfair • John Tukey • Joseph Priestley • Least Squares • Life Expectancy • Longevity • master's degree • mathematician • Mathematics • Matthew Boulton • Men of Mathematics • Milton Friedman • Mr. • narrative • Number Theory • of education • percentage • Philosopher • Physician • popularity • Prediction • Publication • Publish or Perish • Quantity • Ralph Waldo Emerson • random number generation • RANDU • Ranking (information retrieval) • result • Richard Feynman • Ronald Fisher • Samuel Molyneux • Science • Scientist • Simpson's paradox • Sir Thomas More (play) • smoothing • Statistic • Statistical Graphics • statistician • Statistics • Superiority (short story) • Tax • Test score • the ascent of man • The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby • The Lonely Crowd • The New York Times • The Philosopher • The Public Interest • The Wealth of Nations • Thomas Kuhn • Tom Wolfe • William Playfair • World War II • Zipf's law
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-4927-6 / 1400849276
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-4927-7 / 9781400849277