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Re: st: Think graphically, think logarithmically


From   Dirk Enzmann <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: Think graphically, think logarithmically
Date   Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:49:33 +0100

This goes even further back to Weber-Fechner's law

  noticability = c*ln(intensity_of_sensation)

or to Fechner (1860), Elemente der Psychophysik.

"Verkuilen, Jay" <[email protected]> wrote:
Subject: RE: st: Think graphically, think logarithmically

David Kantor wrote:

It has some resemblance to that iconic picture that appeared as a New
Yorker cover -- with 9th and 10th Avenue in the foreground, then the Hudson River, then the rest of the US, then the Pacific Ocean and Japan off in the distance.<<

Yes, that's because, grossly speaking, human perceptual systems are logarithmic. There's a classic study by Roger Shepard (inventor of nonmetric multidimensional scaling) that shows this. New Yorkers may be particularly narcissistic but it's a general property.
Jay

Dirk Enzmann
[email protected]
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