This article is another postgame analysis of the “election”. Not especially interesting, too much focus on fine details of redistricting and population trends for my taste. The graph halfway down is far more interesting. Hard to interpret at first, until I realized it’s a parametric graph. The lines zigzag all over the place, sometimes backward and sometimes forward. Is it a mistake? No. Each line is a timeline moving around on the X and Y axes.
I use parametric equations often in animations, and life also uses this approach in animating real muscles and organs. The only driving variable is time. Many motions are running simultaneously, all sync’d by time and all depending on time. A hand or foot or jaw will move forward and backward, left or right, up or down, and we don’t notice it in nature.
The standard XY graph is not parametric. X is the driver, Y is the result. When X represents time, the other motions are shown as separate lines, always moving relentlessly rightward, one for each income group or treatment type or gender or whatever.
Parametric graphs really should be animated GIFs like this, now that the technology is available. An arrow or an appropriate little icon sliding repeatedly along the timeline would make the ‘arrow of time’ easy to see.
Polistra's Mill 