by Anna Thompson
I think this is a really cool bit of code that allows one to visualize date and time in the context of what is actually happening in outerspace. It is intriguing in its simplicity, which I often find to be the key to succesfully communicating otherwise complex concepts. I can also begin to imagine how the code works using a series of pie charts. I imagine there are 5 primary components: the Sun, the Earth and its orbit, and the Moon and its orbit. The Sun is a simple solid circle, and the Earth's orbit is an unfilled circle around the Sun that is partially highlighted, depending on the date. The position of the Earth on its orbit is also determined by the date. The Earth circle is a pie chart, representing the time of day. Like the Sun, the Moon is also a solid fill circle, but its position changes along its orbit around the Earth, as determined by the hour of the month.
I like that voronoi maps enable point data to be represented across the entire area of a map without using state or other political boundaries. In this example, airport proximity is depicted, which is not impacted by state borders, because they generally do not restrict travel. I imagine that this was created by identifying the midpoint between two airports and drawing a perpendicualar line through that point. The line terminates when it intersects with another. Once a polygon is closed around a point, lines that fall outside it in association with that point are erased.
The primary reason I chose this example is because I can't stop watching it. I am thinking really hard about how it could be used, and I haven't yet landed on an idea that fully uses the complexity of what is going on here. My first thought is for teaching derivatives using the green line that displays the slope of the curve. Without a specific need for something like this, it is difficult to come up with an idea, so this is more of a tool to just keep in the back of my mind hoping the time will come.. I assume these curves are plotted on invisible x-y axes. The black curve is defined by an equation that passes through two blue points, defined by where you drag them. Along a defined time for one loop, a black point travels at a steady speed from one end to the other of the black curve. Meanwhile, orange points travel at a steady speed along the line segments that connect the four draggable blue points. Orange lines segment connect those orange points. Along the orange line segments, green points travel at a steady speed from one end to the other, also defined by the length of the loop. A green line segment connects the two green points. Though the animation looks smooth, it is probably composed of a bunch of still images that are recalculated and replaced at a very small time interval.