My Blog!

I have created this blog to list and explain different types of maps! When people hear the word map, they generally do not realize how many kinds of maps there actually are, and how they all differ. This blog explains the differences, and provides pictures and website information.

Correlation Matrix

Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/UFA.HTM

Correlation Matrices is used for factor analysis. This allows for data sets to be analyzed and compared, which can help with making predictions of trends and comparisons to historic data. In addition, it allow researches to put their theories to test. The correlation matrix I included shows the values of certain nations on subjects such as trade, power, stability, U.S. agreement, and percentage of GNP for defense.

Star Plots

Source: http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Assessment-tools-resources/Alignment-of-tools-with-National-Standards/Reading/Observation-Survey

Star plots are a more complex graph. The information they depict has multiple variables, and is spread across a 2D chart. In today's society they are commonly seen being used in sports to chart the players strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance on the team. Visually, they make it simple to view any outliers. This chart above represents reading achievement. The things that affect it most are letter identification- since the lines are the highest at the point.

Similarity Matrix

Source: http://www.calculatebmi.co/bmi-calculator-for-men/

A similarity matrix is a tool for comparison of numbers representing different data. The best example of this is a BMI chart. It takes two separate sets of data- Height and Weight, and compares the two and shows where the match up to represent someone who is underweight, healthy, overweight, obese, and extremely obese. Similarity matrices have 3 columns- the original 2 that are being compared, and the third is the column which presents the outcomes. This chart utilizes colors to show the comparison between the numbers and which area they correspond with. Green is the zone which everyone should be in, because that represents a healthy individual. Taller people can weigh more and still be healthy.

Stem and Leaf Plot

Source: http://www.basic-mathematics.com/stem-and-leaf-plot.html

Stem and Leaf plots categorize data in numeric order. A vertical line is used to separate the numbers from their origin. For instance, the first number in the stem column is 10, which represents 100. The numbers to the right, or the leaves, consist of 4 and 7. Together these numbers represent 104 and 107. This is an easy way to look at a collection of data with similar number values, and not have to worry about looking at their columns and where they line up on the graph. This is a much quicker way of interpreting the data and discovering things such as the mean, median, and mode.

Box Plot

Source: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/boxplot.htm

Box plots are used for two main purposes: to convey location of data and to convey the variation of data. This can be done by finding the mean of the data and plotting that value and its quartiles. This box plot is displaying different machines energy output. These plots are able to identify the overall mean, extreme points, or outliers, and the median.

Histogram

Source: http://quarknet.fnal.gov/toolkits/ati/histograms.html

Histograms are bar graphs that show frequency distributions. This graph above is from this set of numbers: 1,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,5,6. The x-axis which is the 'number in set' is numbered 0-6. The y-axis is the 'times appearing', which is numbered 0-5. This is a simple representation of a histogram, because it records the frequency of numbers appearing in a number sequence. Judging by the graph, the number 3 appears 4 time, while the number 1, 5, and 6 only appear 1 time. The numbers 2 and 4 appear 2 times.