What Is a Nomogram and Why Would It Interest Me?

https://lefakkomies.github.io/pynomo-doc/introduction/introduction.html#what-is-a-nomogram-and-why-would-it-interest-me

by Eridanus2 • 26 days ago

152 24 26 days ago

lefakkomies.github.io

nok22kon• 26 days ago

I think the Numogram is more interesting, highly relevant today due to AI happenings

cscheid2• 26 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• 26 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.

kqr2• 26 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• 26 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).

speff• 26 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• 26 days ago

Can you use actually use it eyes closed? Never heard of that level of precision in the mind's eye

cscheid2• 25 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• 26 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.

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

LelouBil• 26 days ago

I read the title as "Nonogram" (Picross) at first !

smitty1e• 26 days ago

I read PyNomo as "Py no mo' " and was overcome by a feeling of loss.

analogpixel• 26 days ago

video explaining what a Nomogram is and how to make them by hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCd9hANNLsw

QuesnayJr• 26 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• 26 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• 26 days ago

The US Navy still uses nomograms for chemistry control on nuclear reactors!

onefiftymike2• 26 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.

https://github.com/lefakkomies/pynomo

makeset• 26 days ago

That is TFA.

eigent• 25 days ago

Router-protocol specification.

onefiftymike2• 25 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• 25 days ago

MTU Network Tunneling.

JKCalhoun• 26 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• 26 days ago

Also those who want to quit doing drugs should have one.

kqr2• 26 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

What Is a Nomogram and Why Would It Interest Me?

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