Alternatives to histograms

I added histograms to diagonals of the plot generated by pandas.tools.plotting.scatter_matrix function. The code used to generate this plot is presented below: import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import pandas df = pandas.DataFrame(np.random.randn(1000, 4), columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']) pandas.tools.plotting.scatter_matrix(df, alpha=0.2) plt.show()

lt rgb "dark-blue"

Josh Millard creates working software to create the "Histogram as Image" idea from the Ironic Sans post

"…To cluster sets of histogram data, we propose to use Dynamic Clustering Algorithm, (based on adaptive squared Wasserstein distances) that is a k-means-like algorithm for clustering a set of individuals into K classes that are apriori fixed. The main aim of this research is to provide a tool for clustering histograms, emphasizing the different contributions of the histogram variables, and their components, to the definition of the clusters. We demonstrate that this can be achieved using adaptive distances.

Two kind of adaptive distances are considered: the first takes into account the variability of each component of each descriptor for the whole set of individuals; the second takes into account the variability of each component of each descriptor in each cluster. We furnish interpretative tools of the obtained partition based on an extension of the classical measures (indexes) to the use of adaptive distances in the clustering criterion function. Applications on synthetic and real-world data corroborate the proposed procedure."

What have I been doing? Making this sort of stuff point-n-click easy. (/winks @jrauser). #histograms #realtime #WPO

Students use recent Kepler satellite data to estimate the number of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

After I’ve covered basic plotting using matplotlib in this part I’ll show you two ways to display histograms of some data.

Students will explore a relationship called Benford's Law, which describes the frequency of the integers 1-9 in various data. This law is used by the IRS to catch fradulent tax returns, but also applies to astronomical data and other surprising situations.

Based on a recent press release of the 'First Light' image taken with NASA's new WISE satellite, students explore a practical application of a power law function to count the number of stars in the sky. An additional calculus-level problem is included for advanced students.