the dumbbell

Two dots joined by a line. The length of the line is the finding, not either dot.

What it leaves outIt shows the gap and not the road between. Two places can end level having moved in opposite directions all the way.

2 · intermediate · cartesian · rung 3 · what’s related

this platform's own · shipped on the platform · dumbbell

Three worked examples

Two ways of measuring the same borough. Do they agree?

Before you lookWrite down whether you think complaints and inspections tell the same story.

civicwages_la_by_occupation.csv · 755 rows · 10 columns · showing 400 of 755 rows on this page; the file has all of them

what 755 jobs pay in Los Angeles: the tenth-lowest-paid worker against the tenth-highest-paid, hour for hour

What to look atRead the LENGTH, not either end. A short line means everyone in that job is paid about the same; a long one means the same job title covers two different lives. Then notice that the shortest lines are at the bottom of the pay scale.

This example draws itself with a small script. With scripting off you can still read every word on this page, and the file itself is at data/wages_la_by_occupation.csv.

earth and spacewindow_15_year_trends.csv · 132 rows · 2 columns

the warming trend measured over every 15-year window since 1880, collected into decades

What to look atTwo dots per decade: the first window in it and the last. The LENGTH of the line is the finding, not either dot — it is how much the trend moved within that decade.

This example draws itself with a small script. With scripting off you can still read every word on this page, and the file itself is at data/window_15_year_trends.csv.

teen healthnhis_teen_by_sex.csv · 10 rows · 3 columns

ten measures, answered by girls and by boys

What to look atTwo dots, one line. The LENGTH is the finding: anxiety and depression are the two longest lines here, and they are long in the same direction.

This example draws itself with a small script. With scripting off you can still read every word on this page, and the file itself is at data/nhis_teen_by_sex.csv.

the pool

Now build one yourself.

The pool opens with this file and this shape already drawn, so your first move is to change something rather than to start from nothing. Bring your own CSV if you have one. Nothing is uploaded anywhere — the chart is drawn in your browser, your work saves there, and it downloads as a picture or as a project file you can open again.

Open the pool → the dumbbell · wages_la_by_occupation.csv