Posts for Tag: data

Snake on a Globe

Posted In: Fun | Game | Geography
Snake on a Globe

Navigate the globe to the specified cities eating as many apples as you can

I coded a unique twist on the classic snake game, Snake on a Globe, where your mission is to eat as many apples as you can when given their location and find the best ways to navigate the globe.

The game includes the largest cities in the world and tests your geographical knowledge about country and city locations. Your challenge is to move to the next apple and city in the most efficient manner, moving only along lines of longitude or latitude. But remember you are on a sphere so you can move around the globe in any of four directions: over the poles and east and west.

Instructions

  • Use the arrow keys (or WASD or IJKL) to move up, down, left and right along the lines of longitude and latitude to try to get to the named city.
  • The score increases for each apple you eat and there are extra bonus points for the largest cities. For each apple you eat, your body gets longer
  • The game calculates the least number of steps to move between one apple and the next and your score will start to decline once you exceed this number of steps. The game will remind you that your score is going down because it will be shown in red.
  • The game ends when your score goes to zero (i.e. you took too long to eat an apple) or if you collide with your own body. One caveat is that you can cross over the poles without hitting your own body if you are on a different line of longitude.
  • See how many apples you can eat and whether you can get a high score.
  • Sources and Tools:
    The list of cities and their population is from Simplemaps. The game is coded with Three Globe and Three.js, 3D javascript libraries in javascript and HTML and CSS.

    Snake on a Globe game

    University of California Admission Rates by Major

    Posted In: College

    Which majors are most competitive across the University of California system?

    The University of California consists of nine campuses with undergraduate programs and they are all ranked among the best universities in the US (according to US News). All nine rank within the top 45 public schools including #1 and #2 and top 85 national universities in the US.

    This data visualization focuses on the acceptance rates for students based on their indicated preferred majors in their application to the various University of California campuses in the Fall of 2023 admissions cycle. When you apply to a given university campus, you need to specify a major and this choice can affect the student’s chances of getting accepted, especially if the major is very sought after. Subjects like computer science are very popular and as a result, the data shows that most campuses have a lower acceptance rate for computer science as compared to the university as a whole.

    Data visualization

    The graph shown in the data visualization is a marimekko graph which shows a percentage based bar graph showing the acceptance rate (in blue) for a given major at a given university. The height of each horizontal bar is proportional to the number of applicants to that major, so taller bars have more applicants vs bars that are shorter. If you hover over (or click on mobile) a bar, it provides more information about the acceptance rate, enrollment rate (i.e. yield rate) and the GPA of accepted students. You can choose to sort the graph by subject name, admit rate or number of applicants.

    The data visualization can help you explore different campuses and major categories. If you are viewing “School View“, you can see how the various disciplines compare for a single university at one time. Whereas if you view “Subject View” you can see the comparison of a single discipline across the University campuses that offer those majors.

    The University of California has over 240,000 undergraduate students and extends about 140,000 acceptances to fill out 42,000 slots for first year students. There is a significant amount of overlap as most students applying for admission apply to several campuses, and many students get accepted to multiple campuses.

    The broad disciplines used in the visualization are composed of a number of individual majors and these are detailed in the table below.

     

    GPA calculation

    The University of California only considers grades from 10th grade and 11th grade for admissions decisions, and uses a weighted system where honors and AP classes are given an extra point in GPA calculations above the normal A=4, B=3, C=2, etc. . GPA calculation. So for an honors math class, for example, an A would be worth 5 points.

     

    Sources and Tools:
    Data comes directly from the University of California website for the fall of 2023, which has quite a bit of interesting data about students and admissions. I downloaded the data and processed it with python to organize it. The webtool is made using javascript, HTML and CSS and graphed using the open-source plotly graphing library.

     

    Table of Disciplines to majors

    This table lists the specific areas and majors that make up the broad disciplines shown in the data visualization.

    Broad discipline CIP Family Title CIP Subfamily Title
    Architecture ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SERVICES Architecture.
    Architecture ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SERVICES City/Urban, Community, and Regional Planning.
    Architecture ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SERVICES Environmental Design.
    Architecture ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SERVICES Landscape Architecture.
    Architecture ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SERVICES Real Estate Development.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS African Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Slavic, Baltic and Albanian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Germanic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Middle/Near Eastern and Semitic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Celtic Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
    Arts & Humanities FOREIGN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other.
    Arts & Humanities ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS English Language and Literature, General.
    Arts & Humanities ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.
    Arts & Humanities ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS Literature.
    Arts & Humanities ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS English Language and Literature/Letters, Other.
    Arts & Humanities LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES, GENERAL STUDIES AND HUMANITIES Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.
    Arts & Humanities PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES Philosophy.
    Arts & Humanities PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES Religion/Religious Studies.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Visual and Performing Arts, General.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Dance.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Design and Applied Arts.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Film/Video and Photographic Arts.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Fine and Studio Arts.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Music.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management.
    Arts & Humanities VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS Visual and Performing Arts, Other.
    Arts & Humanities HISTORY History.
    Broad discipline CIP Family Title CIP Subfamily Title
    Business BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES Business Administration, Management and Operations.
    Business BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES Business/Managerial Economics.
    Business BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES Human Resources Management and Services.
    Business BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES Management Information Systems and Services.
    Business BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.
    Computer Science COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES Computer and Information Sciences, General.
    Computer Science COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES Computer Programming.
    Computer Science COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES Information Science/Studies.
    Computer Science COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES Computer Science.
    Computer Science COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES Computer Software and Media Applications.
    Computer Science COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management.
    Education EDUCATION Education, General.
    Education EDUCATION Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education.
    Education EDUCATION Special Education and Teaching.
    Education EDUCATION Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Engineering, General.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Agricultural Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Biomedical/Medical Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Chemical Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Civil Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Computer Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Engineering Physics.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Engineering Science.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Materials Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Mechanical Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Nuclear Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Operations Research.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Geological/Geophysical Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Biochemical Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Biological/Biosystems Engineering.
    Engineering ENGINEERING Engineering, Other.
    Life Sciences AGRICULTURAL/ ANIMAL/ PLANT/ VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS Animal Sciences.
    Life Sciences AGRICULTURAL/ ANIMAL/ PLANT/ VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS Food Science and Technology.
    Life Sciences AGRICULTURAL/ ANIMAL/ PLANT/ VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS Plant Sciences.
    Life Sciences NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION Natural Resources Conservation and Research.
    Life Sciences NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION Forestry.
    Life Sciences NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management.
    Life Sciences NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION Natural Resources and Conservation, Other.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Biology, General.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Botany/Plant Biology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Microbiological Sciences and Immunology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Zoology/Animal Biology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Genetics.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Pharmacology and Toxicology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Biotechnology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Neurobiology and Neurosciences.
    Life Sciences BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other.
    Broad discipline CIP Family Title CIP Subfamily Title
    Nursing HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical
    Other Health Science HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration.
    Other Health Science HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS Public Health.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary AGRICULTURAL/ ANIMAL/ PLANT/ VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS Agricultural Business and Management.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary AGRICULTURAL/ ANIMAL/ PLANT/ VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS Agricultural Production Operations.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary AGRICULTURAL/ ANIMAL/ PLANT/ VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS International Agriculture.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary COMMUNICATION, JOURNALISM, AND RELATED PROGRAMS Communication and Media Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary COMMUNICATION, JOURNALISM, AND RELATED PROGRAMS Journalism.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary LEGAL PROFESSIONS AND STUDIES Non-Professional Legal Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Mathematics and Computer Science.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Science, Technology and Society.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Nutrition Sciences.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES International/Globalization Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Classical and Ancient Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Cognitive Science.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Human Biology.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Marine Sciences.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Sustainability Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Geography and Environmental Studies.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Data Science.
    Other/ Interdisciplinary MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other.
    Pharmacy HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration.
    Physical Sciences/Math MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS Mathematics.
    Physical Sciences/Math MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS Applied Mathematics.
    Physical Sciences/Math MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS Statistics.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Astronomy and Astrophysics.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Chemistry.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Physics.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Materials Sciences.
    Physical Sciences/Math PHYSICAL SCIENCES Physical Sciences, Other.
    Broad discipline CIP Family Title CIP Subfamily Title
    Public Admin PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS Community Organization and Advocacy.
    Public Admin PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS Public Administration.
    Public Admin PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS Public Policy Analysis.
    Public Admin PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS Social Work.
    Public Admin PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS Public Administration and Social Service Professions, Other.
    Public Health HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS Public Health.
    Social Sciences AGRICULTURAL/ANIMAL/ PLANT/VETERINARY SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS Agricultural Business and Management.
    Social Sciences AREA, ETHNIC, CULTURAL, GENDER, AND GROUP STUDIES Area Studies.
    Social Sciences AREA, ETHNIC, CULTURAL, GENDER, AND GROUP STUDIES Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.
    Social Sciences AREA, ETHNIC, CULTURAL, GENDER, AND GROUP STUDIES Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies, Other.
    Social Sciences FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES/HUMAN SCIENCES Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.
    Social Sciences FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES/HUMAN SCIENCES Apparel and Textiles.
    Social Sciences PSYCHOLOGY Psychology, General.
    Social Sciences PSYCHOLOGY Research and Experimental Psychology.
    Social Sciences PSYCHOLOGY Clinical, Counseling and Applied Psychology.
    Social Sciences PSYCHOLOGY Psychology, Other.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Social Sciences, General.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Anthropology.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Archeology.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Criminology.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Economics.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Geography and Cartography.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES International Relations and National Security Studies.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Political Science and Government.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Sociology.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Urban Studies/Affairs.
    Social Sciences SOCIAL SCIENCES Social Sciences, Other.

    UC admissions by major

    California Electricity Generation

    Posted In: Energy | Environment
    California Electricity Generation

    What are the main sources of California’s electricity?

    I added the option to view the graph for any day or monthly average from April 2018 to the present using the calendar picker and a daily generation summary

    In the United States, electric power plant emissions account for about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. However, California has been a leader in the transition to clean and renewable energy, driven by ambitious climate policies and a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The state has set an electricity target for the state of 60% renewables by 2030 and 100% zero-carbon, clean electricity by 2045. To meet these targets, the state has been investing heavily into solar and wind energy sources. Solar is the largest proportion of California’s electricity grid and California now generates more solar energy than any other state.

    The California Independent System Operator manages the grid for around 32 million Californians or about 80% of the total demand in the state. Here is a map showing the service area and the other electricity districts in the state, the main exceptions include the city of LA and the Sacramento area.

    How to read the graph of California’s electricity

    The graphs shown here allow us to visualize how electricity generation in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) region varies over the course of the day. We can see how solar ramps up to be a huge contributor in the middle of the day. And overall, the vast majority of the generation in the state is one form of renewable electricity or another (e.g. solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass and biogas). Add in a small contribution from zero-carbon nuclear energy and we can see that a large majority of power generation comes from zero-carbon sources. It also shows the total electricity demand, which should always be less than the total electricity supply in the state.

    Because of the intermittent nature of some renewables, like wind and solar, there are times where the demand for electricity is not able to be met by these sources, and other options are needed to maintain supply demand balance on the state’s grid. To address this issue, the state relies on importing power from outside of the state as well as energy storage (primarily batteries) to meet electricity demand when renewable energy supply is low. If demand is much less than supply, then likely there will be power exported or some charging of batteries. And if demand is less than total generation in the state, power will be imported and/or batteries will be discharged to make up for the power shortfall.

    On the graph, positive values from batteries and imports is when those sources are supplying power to the California grid. Negative values for batteries and exports are when there is excess power in the state and batteries are being charged up or power is being exported to neighboring states.

    You can view the graph in two forms:

    • Detailed – shows all of the power plant fuel types that is provided in the CAISO data: Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Coal, Other, Natural Gas, Large Hydropower, Small Hydropower, Geothermal, Biomass and Biogas. In addition, it shows aggregated net imports into the state from other regions as well as battery discharging or charging.
    • Simplified – I aggregated the categories from CAISO into Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Fossil Fuel (including Coal, Other and Natural Gas), Hydro (Large and Small Hydropower), and Other Renewable (Geothermal, Biomass and Biogas). In addition, it shows aggregated net imports into the state from other regions as well as battery discharging or charging.

    Also, I added the ability to see yesterday’s data as well. In the future, I will add the ability to see other dates as well.

    Data Sources and Tools
    Data for electricity sources for California grid comes from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). This data from this site is downloaded and processed using a python script and updated every 5 minutes. The graph is made using the open source Plotly javascript graphing library.

    California Electricity Generation

    Global Birth Map

    Posted In: Maps
    global birth map

    Where in the world are babies being born and how fast?

    This interactive, animated map shows the where births are happening across the globe. It doesn’t actually show births in real-time, because data isn’t actually available to do that. However, the map does show the frequency of births that are occurring in different locations across the world. And you can see it in two ways, by country and also geo-referenced to specific locations (along a 1degree grid across the globe). There are many different ways to view this global birth map and these options are laid out in the controls at the top of the map. The scrolling list across the bottom also shows the country of each of the dots on the map.

    Instructions

    • Speed – change the slider to change the rate at which births show up on the map from real-speed to 25x faster
    • Map projection – change the map projection
    • Highlight country – an outline around the country when a birth occurs
    • Choropleth – Build – as each birth occurs, the background color of the country will slowly change to reflect the number of births in the country
    • Choropleth – Show – this option colors all the countries to show the number of births per day that occur in the country
    • Dots – Show – this is the main feature that shows where each birth is occurring at the frequency that it does occur.
    • Dots – Persist – this feature shows where previous births have occurred and the dots get darker as more births happen in that location.
    • If you hover (or click on mobile) on a country during the animation, it will display how many births have occurred since the animation stared.

    Population distribution data combined with country birthrates

    I used data that divided and aggregated the world’s population into 1 degree grid spacing across the globe and I assigned the center of each of these grid locations to a country. Then the country’s annual births (i.e. the country’s population times its birthrate) were distributed across all of the populated locations in each country, weighted by the population distribution (i.e. more populated areas got a greater fraction of the births).

    Data Sources and Tools
    Population and birthrate data for 2023 was obtained from Wikipedia (Population and birth rates). Population distribution across the globe was obtained from Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (sedac) at Columbia University.

    I used python to process country, population distribution data and parse the data into the probability of a birth at each 1 degree x 1 degree location. Then I used javascript to make random draws and predict the number of births for each map location. D3.js was used to create the map elements and html, css and javascript were used to create the user interface.

    global birth map

    Tioga Pass (Yosemite) Opening Dates

    Posted In: Environment | Water

    When does Tioga Pass in Yosemite typically open?

    The graph shows the closing and opening dates of Tioga pass in Yosemite National Park for each winter season from 1933 to the present. Tioga pass is a mountain pass on State Highway 120 in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range and one of the entrances to Yosemite NP. The pass itself peaks at 9945 ft above sea level. Each winter it gets a ton of snow, but also with a great deal of variability, which really affects when it can be plowed and the road reopened.

    Our family likes to go to Yosemite in June after the kids school lets out and sometimes Hwy 120 and Tioga Pass can often be closed at this time, which limits which areas of the park you can visit. So I often look at data on when the road has opened before and thought it would be a good thing to visualize.

    You can toggle the labels on the graph that show the dates of opening and closing as well as the number of days that the pass was closed each winter. Hovering (or clicking) on the circles on the graph will give you a pop up which gives you the exact date.

    Data and Tools
    The data comes from the US National Park Service for most recent data as well as Mono Basin Clearinghouse for earlier data going back to 1933. Data was organized and compiled in MS Excel. Visualization was done in javascript and specifically the plotly visualization library.

    tioga pass opening date

    Wordle Stats – How Hard is Today’s Wordle?

    Posted In: Fun | Game

    Update: Added a histogram below main graph to view the difficulty of today’s puzzle in context of historical data (compared to a number of previous puzzles)

    What is today’s Wordle difficulty?

    Wordle is a game of highs and lows. Sometimes your guesses are lucky (I mean, highly skilled) and you can solve the puzzle easily and sometimes you barely get it in 6 guesses. When the latter happens, sometimes you want validation that that day’s puzzle was hard. This dataviz lets you see how difficult today’s wordle puzzle was for other NY Times Wordle players did.

    The graph shows the distribution of guesses needed to solve today’s Wordle puzzle, rounded to the nearest whole percent. It also colors the most common number of guesses to solve the puzzle in green and calculates the average number of guesses. “NS” stands for Not Solved. The lower histogram provides some context for how difficult the day’s puzzle is compared to many other puzzles in the past based on average number of guesses needed to solve the puzzle. It doesn’t include the entire history of wordle, but a subset of days that I was able to gather data on.

    Even over 1 year later, I still enjoy playing Wordle. I even made a few Wordle games myself – WordguessrTridleScrabwordle. I’ve been enjoying the Wordlebot which does a daily analysis of your game. I especially enjoy how it indicates how “lucky” your guesses were and how they eliminated possible answers until you arrive at the puzzle solution. One thing it also provides is data on the frequency of guesses that are made which provides information on the number of guesses it took to solve each puzzle.

    Instructions

  • Click on the eye to get the answer to the day’s puzzle.
  • Select “Hard Mode” from the dropdown menu in order to see the statistics for hard mode
  • Data and Tools
    The data comes from playing NY Times Wordle game and using their Wordlebot. Python is used to extract the data and wrangle the data into a clean format. Visualization was done in javascript and specifically the plotly visualization library.

    wordle daily guess distribution