Author Archives: Nathan Yau

All numbers lead to one

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Nathan Yau

In 1937, mathematician Lothar Collatz proposed that given the following algorithm, you will always end at the number 1:

Take any natural number, n.
If n is even, divide it by 2.
Otherwise, n is odd. Multiply it by 3 and add 1.
Repeat indefinitely.

De… Continue reading →

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Musical spectrum analysis

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Nathan Yau

Jon-Kyle Mohr visualizes the musical spectrum of a song in this mesmerizing video. As the song plays, frequencies bubble up in the 6-o-clock position, and the trace remains as the circle rotates.

[Video Link via feltron]
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Yoda pie chart

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Nathan Yau

"Do or do not. There is no try." — Yoda [via]

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Cartoon color wheel

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Nathan Yau

Slate places cartoon characters from past and present within the frame of a color wheel.
Why are the Smurfs blue? Why is Doug’s Beebe Bluff purple? Our aim is not to answer these existential questions. When asked why the Simpsons are yellow, Yeardley … Continue reading →

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Open thread: Data as cake and frosting?

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Nathan Yau

Mark Johnstone uses a cake metaphor to represent data, presentation, and what you gain. Does the metaphor work? Sound off in the comments below.
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How the deficit got so big

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Nathan Yau

The US continues to rack up more and more debt, with a deficit in the trillions. But how did we get here? Teresa Tritch for The New York Times examines:
In 2001, President George W. Bush inherited a surplus, with projections by the Congressional Budget… Continue reading →

Posted in Bush, deficit, government, Obama, Statistical Visualization | Comments Off

Entire movies compressed into single barcodes

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Nathan Yau

Choice of color in a movie can say a lot about what’s going on in a scene. It sets the mood, changes the tone, indicates a change in point of view, so on and so forth, which is why moviebarcode is so fun to click through. The concept is simple. Take ev… Continue reading →

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Statistician cracks the scratch lottery code

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Nathan Yau

Statisticians everywhere are squealing in delight over this story on fellow statistician Mohan Srivastava, who used his know-how to crack the code of a tic-tac-toe scatcher lottery game. After winning three dollars on a scratcher ticket that was given … Continue reading →

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Map of North American English dialects and subdialects

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Nathan Yau

Rick Aschmann has made a hobby out of studying and mapping North American English dialects:
This is just a little hobby of mine, that I thought might be interesting to a lot of people. Some people collect stamps. Others collect coins. I collect dialect… Continue reading →

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