@Silvia I see it here. My guess is that it first colors the & as a syntax error, then does a subexpression expand command and searches for #. So the # is colored like it is properly bound even though it is not because the subexpression expand isn't correct due to the syntax error.
In general though, getting syntax coloring correct in a situation with multiple syntax errors can be difficult.
That is very cool. I didn't know the word nomogram. I have always been a big fan of things like visual proofs of the Pythagorean theorem though. I'd probably have a Pinterest account if the average Pinterest post I see from my Facebook friends was as interesting as the diagrams Vitaliy finds.
That sounds like a fun project. Many pilots still use charts for things like computing crosswind components and weight-balance checks. I guess they count as fairly boring, but practical nomograms. I'm working on a demonstration for Jeans instability, but I always end up moving on to something else before I'm happy enough with it to submit it to the website.
When you and Rojo were talking about stars earlier, I started thinking it might be better to work on generating virtual universes from the top down. So I started filling in gaps in my cosmology and astronomy knowledge.
The drawback is that a top down approach means you would skip interesting, exotic universes that don't even have things as familiar as galaxies, stars, and planets in them.
@Silvia @MichaelHale thanks! - I discuss my obsession with diagrammatic drawings a bit in this blog - anyway its the reason I wrote it: blog.wolfram.com/2013/04/12/…
hey guys, I have a very simple question but I cannot think of a way to accomplish this. I have a huge list of lists of the form {{id,a,b,c,d},{xp1,90,80,70,60},{xp2,50,40,30,20},...} and I want to find a way to plot them in a 3Dplot
for instance: having in the XX axis all names of ids (i.e. xp1, xp2, etc), in the YY axis all elements of first row (i.e. a, b, c, d) and in the ZZ axis the number, for that id, for that column
but I cannot think of a clear way to get the 3 coordinates simultaneously
any ideas?
...I just found out that ListPlot3D does what I want without needing any formatting..... sigh
(I had thought that you need to provide 3 coordinate lists of points but no :P)
@Sosi when 3 dimensions is not enough for visual representation, dnamics of all kinds are the only way to go. You may also add switches to plot different slices of your multidimensional object.
@Sosi Representing these things is quite an art, actually. There are methods and common practices but it all seems to be unformalised yet. I believe this novel (?) art/skill/science/whatever called “infographics” will evolve to formal and ordered study of this. Mathematica language would also probably be one of the best instruments for that, btw.
@m_goldberg Ok, thanks! I had found previously that had been a duplicate, but since the OP asked another question I decided to undelete that post completing it with another problem the OP formulated.
@MichaelHale It is possible that all of the observed galaxies, stars and planets are just illusions projected on the crystal sphere, and we are living in an interesting, exotic universe ;)
@VitaliyKaurov Sorted by how much I love them: diagrammatic drawings < methods of generating the drawings < machines (with brass pipes and gears and steam/wind power) of automating the methods :)
@Silvia Hehe, we won't know for sure until a spaceship dents its nose. Of course, the Greeks used to think the stars were a sphere around Earth. I think our ideas, languages, and mathematics have been developed so long in the context of our observations about our default universe that it would take significant effort to develop the foundations to describe very exotic things.
For the purposes of telling stories and entertainment, it seems that starting with something familiar and adding small variations and bits of magic can keep people occupied for a long time. Maybe you love gears, pipes, and steam and wind power because our actual history explored only a small portion of the possibilities of early industrial machines and their cultural ramifications.
I think the richness of this unexplored possibility space is what drives the growing popularity of the steampunk genre.
