the.com/bar chart
data wearing a skyline, so you can eyeball who's winning without doing math.
means a chart that uses rectangular bars, sized by value, to compare discrete categories at a glance.
from credited to william playfair, a scottish engineer and economist who published the first one in his 1786 commercial and political atlas, using bars because he lacked enough trade data to draw his beloved line charts.
inventor's day jobplayfair was also a convicted swindler and spy
zero rulebars must start at zero or they lie
horizontal cousinflip it sideways and it's technically still correct
first useshowed scotland's imports and exports by country, 1781
for instance
playfair's 1786 chart — the original, comparing scottish trade with 17 countries
covid dashboards — daily case bars turned newsrooms into statisticians worldwide, 2020
excel default chart — the button millions click without knowing its 18th-century backstory