Displaying Zero or Negative Data Values in Bubble Charts
The metaphoric representation of data values as disk areas cannot be extended for displaying values that are negative or zero. As a fallback, some users of bubble charts resort to graphic symbology to express nonpositive data values. As an example, a negative value can be represented by a disk of area in which is centered some chosen symbol like "×" to indicate that the size of the bubble represents the absolute value of a negative data value. And this approach can be reasonably effective in situations where data values' magnitudes (absolute values) are themselves somewhat important—in other words, where values of and are similar in some context-specific way—so that their being represented by congruent disks makes sense.
To represent zero-valued data, some users dispense with disks altogether, using, say, a square centered at the appropriate location.
Read more about this topic: Bubble Chart
Famous quotes containing the words displaying, negative, data, values, bubble and/or charts:
“One of the grotesqueries of present-day American life is the amount of reasoning that goes into displaying the wisdom secreted in bad movies while proving that modern art is meaningless.... They have put into practise the notion that a bad art work cleverly interpreted according to some obscure Method is more rewarding than a masterpiece wrapped in silence.”
—Harold Rosenberg (19061978)
“The working woman may be quick to see any problems with children as her fault because she isnt as available to them. However, the fact that she is employed is rarely central to the conflict. And overall, studies show, being employed doesnt have negative effects on children; carefully done research consistently makes this clear.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“Mental health data from the 1950s on middle-aged women showed them to be a particularly distressed group, vulnerable to depression and feelings of uselessness. This isnt surprising. If society tells you that your main role is to be attractive to men and you are getting crows feet, and to be a mother to children and yours are leaving home, no wonder you are distressed.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline.”
—Jacob Bronowski (19081974)
“Each swung in danger on its slender twig,
A bubble on a pipestem, growing big.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“Theres one basic rule you should remember about development charts that will save you countless hours of worry.... The fact that a child passes through a particular developmental stage is always more important than the age of that child when he or she does it. In the long run, it really doesnt matter whether you learn to walk at ten months or fifteen monthsas long as you learn how to walk.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)