Synopsis
Excerpt from Graphic Charts in Business How to Make and Use Them
The reason for the tremendous increase in the use and application of graphic charts in the last few years is that it is possible to represent in pictorial form, by means of them, the relative magnitudes of quanti ties and the relative changes that take place with the process of time.
Charts appeal to the mind through the eye which is the organ best adapted by nature for the comparison of, quantities, because for count less ages man has been compelled to estimate quantities, - distances, volumes, masses, areas, etc., - by the eye alone and, much of the time, subconsciously. Our conceptions of space are mostly visual conceptions. We do not grasp the idea of the size of a locomotive, for instance, except by picturing in our mind's eye what a locomotive of a certain size would look like. Our most tangible conception of the value of a sum of money is the size of the pile of gold representing this amount, or the Size of the pile of cotton or logs or coal, or any other commodity that we are most familiar with, that such a sum of money would buy.
It is a fact of experience that if we Wish to estimate the height of a house, the length of a block, the weight of a pig, or the area of a lot, our estimate will be much closer if we are able to make a direct visual com parison between the unknown object of which it is desired to estimate the dimensions, and another similar object of known dimensions, than by any other method short of direct scientific mensuration involving mathematical and mechanical devices for such comparisons. By this well-known method, experienced drovers readily estimate within a few pounds the weight of steers as they walk or trot past the loading plat form, and the same general fact applies to our experience in an enormous number of human activities. Consequently, the best way to convey an impression of quantity on paper to another person is by means of the nearest approximation to an eye view that is practicable, namely pictures. A well-known illustration of this fact is the use of the picture of a ship to represent the size of a navy, the ship representing the United States navy being two-thirds larger than the one representing the J apenese navy, for example. That is, by making the drawings of the ships indicate such a difference, the relative sizes of the navies, as approved by the Arms Conference, are indicated.
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Product Description
Excerpt from Graphic Charts in Business How to Make and Use Them This book was written as a companion volume to "How to Make and Use Graphic Charts" the large demand for which the author ascribes mainly to the tremendous public interest in the subject. The extraordinary growth in the use of graphic methods which has been, perhaps, more voluminous in the last five years than in the whole period prior to 1917, seems to be due to the fact that three of the main functions of charts can be performed by their use much more rapidly, easily and cheaply, than by any other method. For Computation, whereby many, if not indeed most, of the processes of mathematics can be performed without the labor and often without the knowledge of the mathematics involved; for Recording multitudes of facts of a great variety; and, for the Demonstration of facts in a quantitative way, the graphic chart is the best instrument that has yet been developed. As a consequence, thousands of business concerns have adopted graphics as a standard method for the promotion of greater efficiency in organization, advertising, production control, etc.; colleges and universities are giving special courses in graphic methods; and "graphic service" organizations are springing up for the purpose of making charts for those who need them and cannot learn how to make them fast enough. This, however, is of no great help to the vast majority of business and professional men who either never went to college or who left it long ago, and who, if not too tired, are at least too busy to plunge into a subject which contains many technical questions, and the current literature of which is "shot full of mathematics." To make it easy for the man of business to see when and how graphic methods can best serve his purposes and thus to save him money, time or trouble, is the purpose of this book, and in pursuit of this idea mathematical discussion has been avoided. A great many examples, illustrated by actual charts, have been in
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