This is a list of graphical methods with a mathematical basis. Included are

diagram A diagram is a symbolic Depiction, representation of information using Visualization (graphics), visualization techniques. Diagrams have been used since prehistoric times on Cave painting, walls of caves, but became more prevalent during the Age o ...

techniques,

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

techniques, plot techniques, and other forms of visualization. There is also a list of computer graphics and descriptive geometry topics.

Simple displays

Area chart An area chart or area graph displays graphically quantitative data. It is based on the line chart. The area between axis and line are commonly emphasized with colors, textures and hatchings. Commonly one compares two or more quantities with an a ...

Bar chart A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical variable, categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A ...

Histogram A histogram is a visual representation of the frequency distribution, distribution of quantitative data. To construct a histogram, the first step is to Data binning, "bin" (or "bucket") the range of values— divide the entire range of values in ...

** Variable-width bar chart *

Box plot In descriptive statistics, a box plot or boxplot is a method for demonstrating graphically the locality, spread and skewness groups of numerical data through their quartiles. In addition to the box on a box plot, there can be lines (which are ca ...

** Dispersion fan diagram *

Graph of a function In mathematics, the graph of a function f is the set of ordered pairs (x, y), where f(x) = y. In the common case where x and f(x) are real numbers, these pairs are Cartesian coordinates of points in a plane (geometry), plane and often form a P ...

** Logarithmic graph paper *

Heatmap A heat map (or heatmap) is a 2-dimensional data visualization technique that represents the magnitude of individual values within a dataset as a color. The variation in color may be by hue or brightness, intensity. In some applications such as cr ...

Line chart A line chart or line graph, also known as curve chart, is a type of chart that displays information as a series of data points called 'markers' connected by straight wikt:line, line segments. It is a basic type of chart common in many fields. ...

Pie chart A pie chart (or a circle chart) is a circular Statistical graphics, statistical graphic which is divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice (and consequently its central angle and area) ...

* Plotting *

Radar chart A radar chart is a graphical method of displaying multivariate data in the form of a two-dimensional chart of three or more quantitative variables represented on axes starting from the same point. The relative position and angle of the axes i ...

Scatterplot A scatter plot, also called a scatterplot, scatter graph, scatter chart, scattergram, or scatter diagram, is a type of plot or mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values for typically two variables for a set of dat ...

Sparkline A sparkline is a very small line chart, typically drawn without axes or coordinates. It presents the general shape of a variation (typically over time) in some measurement, such as temperature or stock market price, in a simple and highly condens ...

* Spiral graphic * Stemplot * Stripe graphic

Set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

Venn diagram A Venn diagram is a widely used diagram style that shows the logical relation between set (mathematics), sets, popularized by John Venn (1834–1923) in the 1880s. The diagrams are used to teach elementary set theory, and to illustrate simple ...

* Karnaugh diagram

Descriptive geometry Descriptive geometry is the branch of geometry which allows the representation of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions by using a specific set of procedures. The resulting techniques are important for engineering, architecture, design an ...

Isometric projection Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings. It is an axonometric projection in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and ...

Orthographic projection Orthographic projection (also orthogonal projection and analemma) is a means of representing Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional objects in Plane (mathematics), two dimensions. Orthographic projection is a form of parallel projection in ...

Perspective (graphical) Linear or point-projection perspective () is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of ...

Engineering drawing An engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing that is used to convey information about an object. A common use is to specify the geometry necessary for the construction of a component and is called a detail drawing. Usually, a number of ...

Technical drawing Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. ...

Graphical projection A 3D projection (or graphical projection) is a design technique used to display a three-dimensional (3D) object on a two-dimensional (2D) surface. These projections rely on visual perspective and aspect analysis to project a complex object f ...

Mohr's circle Mohr's circle is a two-dimensional graphical representation of the transformation law for the Cauchy stress tensor. Mohr's circle is often used in calculations relating to mechanical engineering for materials' strength, geotechnical engineer ...

Pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...

Circuit diagram A circuit diagram (or: wiring diagram, electrical diagram, elementary diagram, electronic schematic) is a graphical representation of an Electrical network, electrical circuit. A pictorial circuit diagram uses simple images of components, whil ...

* Smith chart * Sankey diagram

Systems analysis Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees systems analysis as a problem-solving technique that ...

* Binary decision diagram *

Control-flow graph In computer science, a control-flow graph (CFG) is a representation, using graph notation, of all paths that might be traversed through a program during its execution. The control-flow graph was conceived by Frances E. Allen, who noted that ...

* Functional flow block diagram * Information flow diagram *

IDEF IDEF, initially an abbreviation of ICAM Definition and renamed in 1999 as Integration Definition, is a family of modeling languages in the field of systems and software engineering. They cover a wide range of uses from functional modeling to da ...

* N2 chart * Sankey diagram *

State diagram A state diagram is used in computer science and related fields to describe the behavior of systems. State diagrams require that the system is composed of a finite number of states. Sometimes, this is indeed the case, while at other times this i ...

System context diagram A system context diagram in engineering is a diagram that defines the boundary between the system, or part of a system, and its environment, showing the entities that interact with it. This diagram is a high level view of a system. It is similar ...

* Data-flow diagram

Cartography Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

Map projection In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of Transformation (function) , transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional Surface (mathematics), surface of a globe on a Plane (mathematics), plane. In a map projection, ...

Orthographic projection (cartography) Orthographic projection in cartography has been used since antiquity. Like the Stereographic map projection, stereographic projection and gnomonic projection, orthographic projection is a General Perspective projection, perspective projection in ...

Robinson projection The Robinson projection is a map projection of a world map that shows the entire world at once. It was specifically created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of readily showing the whole globe as a flat image. The Robinson ...

Stereographic projection In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective transform, perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point (geometry), point on the sphere (the ''pole'' or ''center of projection''), onto a plane (geometry), plane (th ...

* Dymaxion map *

Topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

* Craig retroazimuthal projection * Hammer retroazimuthal projection

Biological sciences Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...

Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

Punnett square The Punnett square is a square diagram that is used to predict the genotypes of a particular cross or breeding experiment. It is named after Reginald C. Punnett, who devised the approach in 1905. The diagram is used by biologists to determine ...

Systems Biology Graphical Notation The Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) is a standard graphical representation intended to foster the efficient storage, exchange and reuse of information about signaling pathways, metabolic networks, and gene regulatory networks amongst co ...

Physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together is called the "physical sciences". Definition ...

Free body diagram In physics and engineering, a free body diagram (FBD; also called a force diagram) is a graphical illustration used to visualize the applied forces, moments, and resulting reactions on a free body in a given condition. It depicts a body or conn ...

Greninger chart In crystallography, a Greninger chartIt is named after Alden Buchanan Greninger (17 September 1907, Glendale, Oregon20 April 1998). is a chart that allows angular relations between zones and planes in a crystal to be directly read from an x-ray d ...

* Phase diagram * Wavenumber-frequency diagram *

Bode plot In electrical engineering and control theory, a Bode plot is a graph of the frequency response of a system. It is usually a combination of a Bode magnitude plot, expressing the magnitude (usually in decibels) of the frequency response, and a B ...

Nyquist plot In control theory and stability theory, the Nyquist stability criterion or Strecker–Nyquist stability criterion, independently discovered by the German electrical engineer at Siemens in 1930 and the Swedish-American electrical engineer Harry ...

* Dalitz plot *

Feynman diagram In theoretical physics, a Feynman diagram is a pictorial representation of the mathematical expressions describing the behavior and interaction of subatomic particles. The scheme is named after American physicist Richard Feynman, who introduced ...

*Carnot Plot

Business methods

Flowchart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of v ...

Workflow Workflow is a generic term for orchestrated and repeatable patterns of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a seque ...

Gantt chart A Gantt chart is a bar chart that illustrates a schedule (project management), project schedule. It was designed and popularized by Henry Gantt around the years 1910–1915. Modern Gantt charts also show the Dependency (project management), depe ...

* Growth-share matrix (often called BCG chart) *

Work breakdown structure A work-breakdown structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering is a breakdown of a project into smaller components. It is a key project management element that organizes the team's work into manageable sections. The Project Mana ...

Control chart Control charts are graphical plots used in production control to determine whether quality and manufacturing processes are being controlled under stable conditions. (ISO 7870-1) The hourly status is arranged on the graph, and the occurrence of ...

Ishikawa diagram Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams) are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the potential causes of a specific event. Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are produc ...

Pareto chart A Pareto chart is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line. The chart is named for the Pareto principle, ...

(often used to prioritise outputs of an

)

Conceptual analysis

Mind mapping A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information into a hierarchy, showing relationships among pieces of the whole. It is often based on a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated represe ...

Concept mapping A concept map or conceptual diagram is a diagram that depicts suggested relationships between concepts. Concept maps may be used by instructional designers, engineers, technical writers, and others to organize and structure knowledge. A conc ...

Conceptual graph A conceptual graph (CG) is a formalism for knowledge representation. In the first published paper on CGs, John F. Sowa used them to represent the conceptual schemas used in database systems. The first book on CGs applied them to a wide range of ...

* Entity-relationship diagram *

Tag cloud A tag cloud (also known as a word cloud or weighted list in visual design) is a visual representation of text data which is often used to depict tag (metadata), keyword metadata on websites, or to visualize free form text. Tags are usually singl ...

, also known as word cloud

Statistics

* Autocorrelation plot *

Biplot Biplots are a type of exploratory graph used in statistics, a generalization of the simple two-variable scatterplot. A biplot overlays a ''score plot'' with a ''loading plot''. A biplot allows information on both samples and variables of a d ...

Bullet graph A bullet graph is a variation of a bar graph developed by Stephen Few. Seemingly inspired by the traditional thermometer charts and progress bars found in many dashboards, the bullet graph serves as a replacement for dashboard gauges and meters. ...

* Chernoff faces *

* Fan chart * Forest plot *

Funnel plot A funnel plot is a graph designed to check for the existence of publication bias; funnel plots are commonly used in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. In the absence of publication bias, it assumes that studies with high precision will be plott ...

* Galbraith plot *

Mosaic plot A mosaic plot, Marimekko chart, Mekko chart, or sometimes percent stacked bar plot, is a graphical visualization of data from two or more qualitative variables. It is the multidimensional extension of spineplots, which graphically display the same ...

Multidimensional scaling Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a means of visualizing the level of similarity of individual cases of a data set. MDS is used to translate distances between each pair of n objects in a set into a configuration of n points mapped into an ...

* np-chart * p-chart *

* Probability plot **

Normal probability plot The normal probability plot is a graphical technique to identify substantive departures from normality. This includes identifying outliers, skewness, kurtosis, a need for transformations, and mixtures. Normal probability plots are made of raw ...

* Poincaré plot **

Probability plot correlation coefficient plot The probability plot correlation coefficient (PPCC) plot is a graphical technique for identifying the shape parameter for a distributional family that best describes the data set. This technique is appropriate for families, such as the Weibull, th ...

Q–Q plot In statistics, a Q–Q plot (quantile–quantile plot) is a probability plot, a List of graphical methods, graphical method for comparing two probability distributions by plotting their ''quantiles'' against each other. A point on the plot ...

* Rankit *

Run chart A run chart, also known as a run-sequence plot is a graph that displays observed data in a time sequence. Often, the data displayed represent some aspect of the output or performance of a manufacturing or other business process. It is therefore ...

* Seasonal subseries plot *

Scatter plot A scatter plot, also called a scatterplot, scatter graph, scatter chart, scattergram, or scatter diagram, is a type of plot or mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values for typically two variables for a set of dat ...

* Skewplot *

Ternary plot A ternary plot, ternary graph, triangle plot, simplex plot, or Gibbs triangle is a barycentric plot on three variables which sum to a constant. It graphically depicts the ratios of the three variables as positions in an equilateral triangle. ...

Recurrence plot In descriptive statistics and chaos theory, a recurrence plot (RP) is a plot showing, for each moment j in time, the times at which the state of a dynamical system returns to the previous state at i, i.e., when the phase space trajectory visits rou ...

Waterfall chart A waterfall chart is a form of data visualization that helps in understanding the cumulative effect of sequentially introduced positive or negative values. These intermediate values can either be time based or category based. The waterfall char ...

* Violin plot

Other

Ulam spiral The Ulam spiral or prime spiral is a graphical depiction of the set of prime numbers, devised by mathematician Stanisław Ulam in 1963 and popularized in Martin Gardner's ''Mathematical Games'' column in ''Scientific American'' a short time later ...

Nomogram A nomogram (), also called a nomograph, alignment chart, or abac, is a graphical Analog computer, calculating device, a two-dimensional diagram designed to allow the approximate graphical computation of a Function (mathematics), mathematical fu ...

Fitness landscape Fitness may refer to: * Physical fitness, a state of health and well-being of the body * Fitness culture, a sociocultural phenomenon surrounding exercise and physical fitness * Fitness (biology), an individual's ability to propagate its genes * ...

Weather map A weather map, also known as synoptic weather chart, displays various meteorological features across a particular area at a particular point in time and has various symbols which all have specific meanings. Such maps have been in use since the mi ...

Predominance diagram A predominance diagram purports to show the conditions of concentration and pH where a chemical species has the highest concentration in solutions in which there are multiple acid-base equilibria. The lines on a predominance diagram indicate where ...

One-line diagram In power engineering, a single-line diagram (SLD), also sometimes called one-line diagram, is a simplest symbolic representation of an electric power system. A single line in the diagram typically corresponds to more than one physical conductor ...

* Autostereogram *

Edgeworth box In economics, an Edgeworth box, sometimes referred to as an Edgeworth-Bowley box, is a graphical representation of a market with just two commodities, ''X'' and ''Y'', and two consumers. The dimensions of the box are the total quantities Ω''x'' an ...

* Lineweaver-Burk diagram * Eadie-Hofstee diagram *

Population pyramid A population pyramid (age structure diagram) or "age-sex pyramid" is a graphical illustration of the distribution of a population (typically that of a country or region of the world) by age groups and sex; it typically takes the shape of a pyramid ...

Parametric plot In mathematics, a parametric equation expresses several quantities, such as the coordinates of a point, as functions of one or several variables called parameters. In the case of a single parameter, parametric equations are commonly used to ...

* Causality loop diagram *

Ramachandran plot In biochemistry, a Ramachandran plot (also known as a Rama plot, a Ramachandran diagram or a �,ψplot), originally developed in 1963 by G. N. Ramachandran, C. Ramakrishnan, and V. Sasisekharan, is a way to visualize energetically allowed regio ...

* V model *

Sentence diagram A sentence diagram is a pictorial representation of the grammar, grammatical structure of a Sentence (linguistics), sentence. The term "sentence diagram" is used more when pedagogy, teaching written language, where sentences are ''diagrammed''. ...

Tree structure A tree structure, tree diagram, or tree model is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree structure" because the classic representation resembles a tree, although the chart is gen ...

Treemapping In information visualization and computing, treemapping is a method for displaying hierarchical data using nested figures, usually rectangles. Treemaps display hierarchical ( tree-structured) data as a set of nested rectangles. Each branch of ...

* Airfield traffic pattern diagram

External links

A periodic table of visualization methods

{{Visualization Graphical methods * Graphical methods