4 ms·

Diagrams That Changed the World

70 points by ghosh 13y ago

xerophtye 13y ago
Those are some really interesting pictures. Amonsgst the many, these few really caught my attention: 1) The Rosetta Stone (so THAT's how historians got an idea how to decipher hieroglyphs. i always wondered about that) 2) The Leonardo Da vinci diagram. (I see it lla the time on tv but never really understood what it was about until now. Its about human proportions ) 3) The lunar eclipse diagram. Because as far as i know, that was way before any telescopes were invented. Those guys did everything by observations and maths! 4) The Copernicus diagram. It's pretty cool because it was one of the first diagrams in the west that opposed the "earth is centre of the universe" concept. But what is more interesting about this is that Copernicus himself cites the work of Arab astronomers who have been challenging that model based on "The mathematics doesn't add up to your model of earth being the centre. The maths denies that the sun revolves around the earth."
- bazzargh 13y ago
  I like the story of how Linear B was deciphered better http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22782620 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22782620 - no Rosetta stone, but more like cryptanalysis; Alice Kober built frequency tables and discovered patterns which (with a bit of insight and guesswork) led to Michael Ventris cracking the code.
  - xerophtye 13y ago
    Nice read! thanks for sharing!
  - xerophtye 13y ago
    Kinda reminds me of the OTHER major cryptanalysis feat of the time! The breaking of the enigma! (but they built a computer for that) so this story is way more awesome!
josephagoss 13y ago
Whenever I see things like this I try to imagine what sort of common knowledge exited around that time and what the reactions of the people might have been. Some are more immediately powerful than others of course. I can imagine De Humani Corporis Fabrica being extremely startling to the people of that time. In the modern day might that type of leap might even be considered contemporary art. Copernicus's "Heliocentric Universe" is probably one of the most powerful drawings on the list, can you imagine the paradigm shift these views forced upon the world? I don't think we have had any leap of similar magnitude since the atomic age. I really really love this, its like looking back in time.
petepete 13y ago
The Beauty of Diagrams (an excellent BBC4 documentary) is worth tracking down if this kind of thing floats your boat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w5675/episodes/guide http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w5675/episodes/guide
- hamsterlicious 13y ago
  I would also recommend that interested readers check out the Places & Spaces exhibit (http://scimaps.org/ http://scimaps.org/) and Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/atlas-science https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/atlas-science).
moocowduckquack 13y ago
On this theme, I love Charles Minard's diagram of Napoleon's invasion of Russia where the width of the line is how many people are still left - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.pn...
mahoro 13y ago
Haha, that host is blocked by Great Russian Firewall.
bestham 13y ago
The diagrammatic London "Tube map"[1] by Harry Beck is ought to be on that list together with the previously mentioned Charles Minard diagram of Napoleons invasion of Russia[2]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map#Beck.27s_maps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map#Beck.27s_maps [2]: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.pn...
bradleyland 13y ago
I'm surprised that the Feynman Diagram didn't make the list. It's not a specific diagram, but it's certainly the best example of a more recent diagram that has had profound impact on the way we view quantum interactions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram

70 points by ghosh 13y ago

Those are some really interesting pictures. Amonsgst the many, these few really caught my attention: 1) The Rosetta Stone (so THAT's how historians got an idea how to decipher hieroglyphs. i always wondered about that) 2) The Leonardo Da vinci diagram. (I see it lla the time on tv but never really understood what it was about until now. Its about human proportions ) 3) The lunar eclipse diagram. Because as far as i know, that was way before any telescopes were invented. Those guys did everything by observations and maths! 4) The Copernicus diagram. It's pretty cool because it was one of the first diagrams in the west that opposed the "earth is centre of the universe" concept. But what is more interesting about this is that Copernicus himself cites the work of Arab astronomers who have been challenging that model based on "The mathematics doesn't add up to your model of earth being the centre. The maths denies that the sun revolves around the earth."

bazzargh 13y ago
I like the story of how Linear B was deciphered better http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22782620 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22782620 - no Rosetta stone, but more like cryptanalysis; Alice Kober built frequency tables and discovered patterns which (with a bit of insight and guesswork) led to Michael Ventris cracking the code.
- xerophtye 13y ago
  Nice read! thanks for sharing!
- xerophtye 13y ago
  Kinda reminds me of the OTHER major cryptanalysis feat of the time! The breaking of the enigma! (but they built a computer for that) so this story is way more awesome!

josephagoss 13y ago

Whenever I see things like this I try to imagine what sort of common knowledge exited around that time and what the reactions of the people might have been. Some are more immediately powerful than others of course. I can imagine De Humani Corporis Fabrica being extremely startling to the people of that time. In the modern day might that type of leap might even be considered contemporary art. Copernicus's "Heliocentric Universe" is probably one of the most powerful drawings on the list, can you imagine the paradigm shift these views forced upon the world? I don't think we have had any leap of similar magnitude since the atomic age. I really really love this, its like looking back in time.

petepete 13y ago

The Beauty of Diagrams (an excellent BBC4 documentary) is worth tracking down if this kind of thing floats your boat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w5675/episodes/guide http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w5675/episodes/guide

hamsterlicious 13y ago
I would also recommend that interested readers check out the Places & Spaces exhibit (http://scimaps.org/ http://scimaps.org/) and Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/atlas-science https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/atlas-science).

moocowduckquack 13y ago

On this theme, I love Charles Minard's diagram of Napoleon's invasion of Russia where the width of the line is how many people are still left - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.pn...

mahoro 13y ago

Haha, that host is blocked by Great Russian Firewall.

bestham 13y ago

The diagrammatic London "Tube map"[1] by Harry Beck is ought to be on that list together with the previously mentioned Charles Minard diagram of Napoleons invasion of Russia[2]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map#Beck.27s_maps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map#Beck.27s_maps [2]: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.pn...

bradleyland 13y ago

I'm surprised that the Feynman Diagram didn't make the list. It's not a specific diagram, but it's certainly the best example of a more recent diagram that has had profound impact on the way we view quantum interactions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram