1750 – George Adams' Solid Geometry Models

During the 18th century, instrument maker George Adams built and sold solid 3D geometric models as educational complements to the 2D images found in Euclid's Elements of Geometry. As argued by a 18th-century author: It is almost as necessary as in mechanics, to exhibit the objects, whose qualities are to be taught; and to call in the joint assistance of the hands and eyes. According to the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, authors were already experimenting with paper models soon after […]

During the 18th century, instrument maker George Adams built and sold solid 3D geometric models as educational complements to the 2D images found in Euclid's Elements of Geometry. As argued by a 18th-century author: It is almost as necessary as in mechanics, to exhibit the objects, whose qualities are to be taught; and to call in the joint assistance of the hands and eyes. According to the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, authors were already experimenting with paper models soon after the very first English edition of Euclid in 1570. But in contrast with chemistry, the use of physical models has never become widespread in geometry. Sources: Mike Rich (2006) Wooden geometric models made by George Adams. Image by the Whipple Museum.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Physical model Tags: education, geometry, science, wooden

1865 – Hofmann's Croquet Ball Models

August Wilhelm Hofmann was the first to introduce physical representations of molecules into lectures during his Friday Evening Discourses presentation "On the Combining Power of Atoms" at London's Royal Institution of Great Britain in . He introduced a colored set of four croquet balls to represent atoms (hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine and nitrogen), implanted with a fixed number of sticks corresponding to each atom's valence. Thus we distinguish the chlorine atom as univalent, the atom of oxygen […]

August Wilhelm Hofmann was the first to introduce physical representations of molecules into lectures during his Friday Evening Discourses presentation "On the Combining Power of Atoms" at London's Royal Institution of Great Britain in . He introduced a colored set of four croquet balls to represent atoms (hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine and nitrogen), implanted with a fixed number of sticks corresponding to each atom's valence. Thus we distinguish the chlorine atom as univalent, the atom of oxygen as bivalent, that of nitrogen as trivalent, and lastly the carbon atom as quadrivalent. - this I believe I can show you by a very simple contrivance. I will on this occasion, with your permission, select my illustration from that most delightful of games croquet. Let the croquet balls represent our atoms, and let us distinguish the atoms of different elements by different colours. The white balls are hydrogen, the green ones chlorine atoms; the atoms of fiery oxygen are red, those of nitrogen, blue; the carbons atoms, lastly, are naturally represented by black balls. But we have, in addition, to exhibit the different combining powers of these atoms. This we accomplish by screwing into the balls a number of metallic arms (tubes and pins), which correspond respectively to the combining powers of the atoms represented, and which, while constituting an additional feature of distinction, enable us at the same time to join the balls and to rear in this manner a kind of mechanical structures in imitation of the atomic edifices to be illustrated." (Extracts from Proceedings of the Royal Institution, 4, 401-430) Interestingly, while physical representations, Hofmann had the models built so that they were two-dimensional representations of molecules. It's only in the mid 70s that 3-dimensional models emerged. Sources: J. Michael McBride Models and Structural Diagrams in the 1860s Wikipedia August Wilhelm von Hofmann

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Uncertain Tags: chemistry, education, molecules, pragmatic, science

1880 – Klein's Mathematical Plaster Models

In the 19th century, mathematicians became interested in the question how mathematical functions look like. Felix Klein, a German mathematician, had several of such physical models in his lab in Göttingen, and popularized them in America when he brought a boatload to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The photo above shows a model of a Clebsch surface from 1880, designed and presumably built by Adolf Weiler, Klein's grad student. It is kept today at the University of Göttingen. Sources: […]

In the 19th century, mathematicians became interested in the question how mathematical functions look like. Felix Klein, a German mathematician, had several of such physical models in his lab in Göttingen, and popularized them in America when he brought a boatload to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The photo above shows a model of a Clebsch surface from 1880, designed and presumably built by Adolf Weiler, Klein's grad student. It is kept today at the University of Göttingen. Sources: Joshua Batson, This Is What Math Equations Look Like in 3-D, Wired (2014) Göttingen University Clebsch's diagonal surface (thanks to Alba Marina Málaga Sabogal for sending us this reference).

Added by: Yvonne Jansen & Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Saiganesh Swaminathan. Category: Physical model Tags: education, mathematical functions, plaster

1901 – Davenport's Physical Distributions

In 1901, biologist Charles Davenport "built" physical visualizations that show the distributions of features of objects and people. These visualizations were made out of the objects and the people themselves. The purpose was to explain the notion of statistical distribution to a lay audience. On the left image, seashells are piled up according to how many ribs they have. On the middle image, students are arranged in bins according to their height. On the right image, they are simply sorted. […]

In 1901, biologist Charles Davenport "built" physical visualizations that show the distributions of features of objects and people. These visualizations were made out of the objects and the people themselves. The purpose was to explain the notion of statistical distribution to a lay audience. On the left image, seashells are piled up according to how many ribs they have. On the middle image, students are arranged in bins according to their height. On the right image, they are simply sorted. Charles Davenport's research on eugenics may be controversial. Nevertheless, his explanation of statistical distributions has a clear pedagogical value. His examples also show that spatial arrangement is a key feature of data visualizations, and that a good spatial arrangement can augment cognition even without the use of abstract mappings and encodings. Source: Davenport (1901) The Statistical Study of Evolution.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: distribution, education, participatory, people, rearrangeable, rearrangement

1949 – Moniac: A Hydromechanical Machine to Teach Economics

The MONIAC or Phillips machine is a hydromechanical analog computer built to teach basic economical principles using colored water flowing in transparent pipes. The machine was built in 1951 after electrical-engineer-turned-economist William Phillips and his economist colleague Walter Newlyn realized that flows were used as a metaphor to teach economics, but have never been made physical. Phillips is also known for his eponymous curves. Several MONIACs were built, and a working one is […]

The MONIAC or Phillips machine is a hydromechanical analog computer built to teach basic economical principles using colored water flowing in transparent pipes. The machine was built in 1951 after electrical-engineer-turned-economist William Phillips and his economist colleague Walter Newlyn realized that flows were used as a metaphor to teach economics, but have never been made physical. Phillips is also known for his eponymous curves. Several MONIACs were built, and a working one is permanently displayed at the Economics Department of Cambridge University. Sources: Bissell (2007) The Moniac: A Hydromechanical Analog Computer of the 1950s. The museum of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand also has a working MONIAC and a Youtube video explaining it. Image from fulltable.com. Morgan & Boumans (1998) The Secrets Hidden by Two-Dimensionality: Modelling the Economy as a Hydraulic System. The original article by the creator of the machine: Philips (1950) Mechanical Models in Economic Dynamics.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Physical model Tags: economics, education, flows, hydraulic, liquid, physical computation, simulation, water

2006 – RoomQuake: Earthquake Visualization for the Classroom

Styrofoam balls hung from classroom ceiling representing the epicenters (location), magnitudes (diameter and color), and depths (length of the string) of a series of simulated earthquakes in a fifth grade classroom. Source: Tom Moher (2006) Embedded Phenomena: Supporting Science Learning with Classroom-sized Distributed Simulations.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Tom Moher. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: earthquake, education, hand-made, styrofoam, walkable

2008 – Kids Reconstruct Harry Potter's Social Network

At the 2008 science fair (fête de la science), the Aviz group had kids build physical node-link diagrams of Harry Potter's social network using magnets and rubber bands. Source: Aviz. http://www.aviz.fr/old/fetedelascience08/

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: education, hand-built, network, participatory, rearrangeable

2010 – Data Sculptures in Class

The two data sculptures above have been created by undergraduate students as part of a design class given by Andrew Vande Moere at the University of Sydney. A 2010 article he coauthored with Stephanie Patel (link below) provides many other examples of these. Andrew Vande Moere has published several articles on data sculptures since 2008. Sources: Andrew Vande Moere and Stephanie Patel (2010) The Physical Visualization of Information: Designing Data Sculptures in an Educational Context. Also see […]

The two data sculptures above have been created by undergraduate students as part of a design class given by Andrew Vande Moere at the University of Sydney. A 2010 article he coauthored with Stephanie Patel (link below) provides many other examples of these. Andrew Vande Moere has published several articles on data sculptures since 2008. Sources: Andrew Vande Moere and Stephanie Patel (2010) The Physical Visualization of Information: Designing Data Sculptures in an Educational Context. Also see other articles on data sculptures by Andrew Vande Moere.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: data sculptures, education

2021 – Personal Data Physicalizations in Class

Images created by students to represent their personal data. Refer to the publication below for image attributions. I describe the results of implementing a personal data physicalization assignment in an information visualization course for senior undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and software engineering. By collecting data about themselves and representing this data in physical forms, students were able to i) learn about data visualization, ii) […]

      Images created by students to represent their personal data. Refer to the publication below for image attributions. I describe the results of implementing a personal data physicalization assignment in an information visualization course for senior undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and software engineering. By collecting data about themselves and representing this data in physical forms, students were able to i) learn about data visualization, ii) design creatively; and iii) learn about themselves. While data physicalization in education has been explored with non-technical and novice audiences, the experience I report in this paper provides evidence that data physicalization also has benefits for technical, visualization-savvy students. Also check out our entry 2010 – Data Sculptures in Class. Sources: Charles Perin. What Students Learn with Personal Data Physicalization. CG&A SPecial Issue on Visualization Education, 2021.10.1109/MCG.2021.3115417. Author pre-print available at https://hal.inria.fr/hal-03360714. Charles Perin. Personal Data Physicalization assignment v1. University of Victoria Information Visualization course. 2019. Charles Perin. Personal Data Physicalization assignment v2. University of Victoria Information Visualization course. 2021.

Added by: Charles Perin. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: teaching, personal data, physicalization, education