What Is a Nomogram and Why Would It Interest Me?
Eridanus2 · 13 days ago
12 comments
Eridanus2 · 13 days ago
12 comments
nok22kon · 13 days ago
I think the Numogram is more interesting, highly relevant today due to AI happenings
cscheid · 13 days ago
Seriously, though, there's one nomogram you (yes you) should know about and have it well-enough engraved in your mind's eye that you can use it with eyes closed. A nomogram for Bayes' theorem: https://www.ovid.com/journals/nejm/abstract/10.1056/nejm1975...
senkora · 13 days ago
That is cool, although it took me awhile to understand it because the posterior probability is on the left and the prior probability is on the right, and because it uses D=Disease and T=Test when I am used to seeing D=Data.
kqr · 13 days ago
Neat. This is based on Bayes' rule in its odds form[1], or more specifically in log-odds form, where evidence is additive[2].
[1]: https://entropicthoughts.com/bayes-rule-odds-form
[2]: https://entropicthoughts.com/sensitivity-counts-against-you
riedel · 13 days ago
Actually I find nomograms in log form really cool for making naive bayes classifiers 'explainable'. One can even add density for continuous values.
IMHO this is so much nicer than e.g. decisions tree visualizations (which everyone quotes for the most explainable AI models).
tgv · 13 days ago
It is indeed a great tool for visualizing Bayesian relations. You can even "feel" the sensitivity.
speff · 13 days ago
That was a bit small on my screen. Found an interactive one here that's scalable - https://www.medcalc.org/en/calc/fagans-nomogram.php
trunch · 13 days ago
Can you use actually use it eyes closed? Never heard of that level of precision in the mind's eye
cscheid · 13 days ago
You're right that I can't reproduce it like a phone camera could, and that the more precise you are the better (and it might be that with my eyes closed I'm doing something closer to addition in log-odds, like a separate comment responded), but this is super useful even coarsely. The visual affordance gives Bayes's theorem a physicality unlike any other tool I've found.
alnwlsn · 13 days ago
If you like things like this I can recommend you check out the Chris Staecker youtube channel. He covers all sorts of tools people used to use to do math before computers and calculators, and there are a lot of them. Some of the things people came up with to do what today would be considered relatively simple math are pretty clever, pretty complex, or both.
LelouBil · 13 days ago
I read the title as "Nonogram" (Picross) at first !
smitty1e · 13 days ago
I read PyNomo as "Py no mo' " and was overcome by a feeling of loss.
analogpixel · 13 days ago
video explaining what a Nomogram is and how to make them by hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCd9hANNLsw
QuesnayJr · 13 days ago
There's an old paper about the mathematics of nomograms that I found interested when I stumbled across it: https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8708(65)90042-3
forgotpwagain · 13 days ago
The Smith chart is the electrical engineer's favorite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_chart
You either love it or hate it, depending on how well your electromagnetics class was taught.
cckolon · 13 days ago
The US Navy still uses nomograms for chemistry control on nuclear reactors!
onefiftymike · 13 days ago
Here’s an old python program to make pdf nomograms from almost any formula. The example of payment for a loan is one of my favorites.
makeset · 13 days ago
That is TFA.
eigent · 13 days ago
Router-protocol specification.
onefiftymike · 13 days ago
Somehow I looked at the article and completely missed that it was the introduction to Pynomo. My wife would back you up that I am not good at finding things...
interviewpr · 12 days ago
MTU Network Tunneling.
JKCalhoun · 13 days ago
I am fascinated with nomograms ever since I stumbled upon them.
I spent some time earlier this year creating one for two resistors in parallel. I had seen it in an old book [1] but it was of poor quality.
(I tried to get Gemini writing to write code to generate an SVG file—but it was pretty poor compared to the one that I had done by hand in Affinity Designer.)
[1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Technology/T...
dostick · 13 days ago
Also those who want to quit doing drugs should have one.
kqr · 13 days ago
So far my children have not yet had to repeatedly perform complicated calculations, but I look forward to the day. I will definitely teach them with nomograms before we go on to spreadsheets!
Another type of almost-nomogram that's great and practical is the slide rule. In particular in the kitchen, where it makes it really easy to translate proportions. https://entropicthoughts.com/kitchen-slide-rule