the pictograph

One symbol stands for several things, and the key tells you how many. A half symbol is half that many.

What it leaves outHalf a symbol is easy to draw and hard to read. If the unit is large, a real difference can round away to the same number of symbols.

1 · basics · cartesian · rung 1 · what’s there

GAISE II · Level A p.25-26 · shipped on the platform · -- no shape yet --

Three worked examples

One tree symbol stands for a thousand trees. Is half a symbol five hundred?

Before you lookWrite down how many trees you think the tallest row shows, before anyone reads the key aloud.

civicpicture_la_street_trees_by_species.csv · 20 rows · 2 columns

the twenty most common street tree species in Los Angeles

What to look atIf one symbol stood for 1,000 trees, the top species would need dozens. That is the key doing the work — read it before you count.

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/picture_la_street_trees_by_species.csv.

earth and spacepicture_exoplanets_by_discovery_method.csv · 11 rows · 2 columns

every confirmed planet outside our solar system, by how it was found

What to look atTwo methods found almost all of them. A pictograph of this would be two long rows of symbols and nine short ones.

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/picture_exoplanets_by_discovery_method.csv.

teen healthnhis_teen_by_sex.csv · 10 rows · 3 columns

the same ten measures for girls, as counts out of a hundred

What to look atA percentage IS a pictograph waiting to happen: 37 in every 100. Read the key first, then count.

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 pictograph · picture_la_street_trees_by_species.csv