Picturing the uncertain world : how to understand, communicate, and control uncertainty through graphical display / Howard Wainer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wainer, Howard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in science--Graphic methods.

Communication in science.

Uncertainty (Information theory)--Graphic methods.

Uncertainty (Information theory).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.) : 11 color illus. 14 halftones. 81 line illus. 12 tables.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2009]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In his entertaining and informative book Graphic Discovery, Howard Wainer unlocked the power of graphical display to make complex problems clear. Now he's back with Picturing the Uncertain World, a book that explores how graphs can serve as maps to guide us when the information we have is ambiguous or incomplete. Using a visually diverse sampling of graphical display, from heartrending autobiographical displays of genocide in the Kovno ghetto to the "Pie Chart of Mystery" in a New Yorker cartoon, Wainer illustrates the many ways graphs can be used--and misused--as we try to make sense of an uncertain world.Picturing the Uncertain World takes readers on an extraordinary graphical adventure, revealing how the visual communication of data offers answers to vexing questions yet also highlights the measure of uncertainty in almost everything we do. Are cancer rates higher or lower in rural communities? How can you know how much money to sock away for retirement when you don't know when you'll die? And where exactly did nineteenth-century novelists get their ideas? These are some of the fascinating questions Wainer invites readers to consider. Along the way he traces the origins and development of graphical display, from William Playfair, who pioneered the use of graphs in the eighteenth century, to instances today where the public has been misled through poorly designed graphs. We live in a world full of uncertainty, yet it is within our grasp to take its measure. Read Picturing the Uncertain World and learn how.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Picturing the Uncertain World

Part I Introduction and Overview

Part II Political Issues

Part III Educational Testing

Part IV Mostly Methodological

Part V History

Part VI Epilogue

Notes

References

Source Material

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-227) and index.

ISBN:

9781400832897

1400832896

OCLC:

1250073772