Permalink Submitted by Anonymous on December 22, 2010
It's a good point and it shows how statistical representations may actually deceive by placing a particular emphasis. If the statistics are proportional to the radii then those shown on the outside of the circle will have a bigger area and therefore seem more important. Would Nightingale's plots have been quite so persuasive if she had put deaths through combat on the outside and therefore had much bigger red patches in her graphs?
It's a good point and it
It's a good point and it shows how statistical representations may actually deceive by placing a particular emphasis. If the statistics are proportional to the radii then those shown on the outside of the circle will have a bigger area and therefore seem more important. Would Nightingale's plots have been quite so persuasive if she had put deaths through combat on the outside and therefore had much bigger red patches in her graphs?