What Is a Nomogram and Why Would It Interest Me?(lefakkomies.github.io)
49 pointsby Eridanus24 hours ago8 comments
  • cscheid3 hours 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...
    • speffan hour 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
    • senkora3 hours 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.
    • kqr3 hours 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

      • riedel2 hours 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).

        • tgv2 hours ago
          It is indeed a great tool for visualizing Bayesian relations. You can even "feel" the sensitivity.
  • cckolon8 minutes ago
    The US Navy still uses nomograms for chemistry control on nuclear reactors!
  • forgotpwagain20 minutes 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.

  • alnwlsn2 hours 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.

    https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisStaecker

  • analogpixelan hour ago
    video explaining what a Nomogram is and how to make them by hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCd9hANNLsw
  • LelouBilan hour ago
    I read the title as "Nonogram" (Picross) at first !
  • QuesnayJr26 minutes 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
  • nok22kon3 hours ago
    I think the Numogram is more interesting, highly relevant today due to AI happenings