R Dataset / Package HistData / Langren1644
On this R-data statistics page, you will find information about the Langren1644 data set which pertains to van Langren's Data on Longitude Distance between Toledo and Rome. The Langren1644 data set is found in the HistData R package. You can load the Langren1644 data set in R by issuing the following command at the console data("Langren1644"). This will load the data into a variable called Langren1644. If R says the Langren1644 data set is not found, you can try installing the package by issuing this command install.packages("HistData") and then attempt to reload the data with the library() command. If you need to download R, you can go to the R project website. You can download a CSV (comma separated values) version of the Langren1644 R data set. The size of this file is about 1,077 bytes.
van Langren's Data on Longitude Distance between Toledo and Rome
Description
Michael Florent van Langren (1598-1675) was a Dutch mathematician and astronomer, who served as a royal mathematician to King Phillip IV of Spain, and who worked on one of the most significant problems of his time— the accurate determination of longitude, particularly for navigation at sea.
In order to convince the Spanish court of the seriousness of the problem (often resulting in great losses through ship wrecks), he prepared a 1-dimensional line graph, showing all the available estimates of the distance in longitude between Toledo and Rome, which showed large errors, for even this modest distance. This 1D line graph, from Langren (1644), is believed to be the first known graph of statistical data (Friendly etal., 2010). It provides a compelling example of the notions of statistical variability and bias.
The data frame Langren1644
gives the estimates and other information derived from the previously known 1644 graph. It turns out that van Langren produced other versions of this graph, as early as 1628. The data frame Langren.all
gives the estimates derived from all known versions of this graph.
Usage
data(Langren1644) data(Langren.all)
Format
Langren1644
: A data frame with 12 observations on the following 9 variables, giving determinations of the distance in longitude between Toledo and Rome, from the 1644 graph.
Name
-
The name of the person giving a determination, a factor with levels
A. Argelius
...T. Brahe
Longitude
-
Estimated value of the longitude distance between Toledo and Rome
Year
-
Year associated with this determination
Longname
-
A longer version of the
Name
, where appropriate; a factor with levelsAndrea Argoli
Christoph Clavius
Tycho Brahe
City
-
The principal city where this person worked; a factor with levels
Alexandria
Amsterdam
Bamberg
Bologna
Frankfurt
Hven
Leuven
Middelburg
Nuremberg
Padua
Paris
Rome
Country
-
The country where this person worked; a factor with levels
Belgium
Denmark
Egypt
Flanders
France
Germany
Italy
Italy
Latitude
-
Latitude of this
City
; a numeric vector Source
-
Likely source for this determination of Longitude; a factor with levels
Astron
Map
Gap
-
A numeric vector indicating whether the
Longitude
value is below or above the median
Langren.all
: A data frame with 61 observations on the following 4 variables, giving determinations of Longitude between Toledo and Rome from all known versions of van Langren's graph.
Author
-
Author of the graph, a factor with levels
Langren
Lelewel
Year
-
Year of publication
Name
-
The name of the person giving a determination, a factor with levels
Algunos1
Algunos2
Apianus
...Schonerus
Longitude
-
Estimated value of the longitude distance between Toledo and Rome
Details
In all the graphs, Toledo is implicitly at the origin and Rome is located relatively at the value of Longitude
To judge correspondence with an actual map, the positions in (lat, long) are
toledo <- c(39.86, -4.03); rome <- c(41.89, 12.5)
Source
The longitude values were digitized from images of the various graphs, which may be found on the Supplementary materials page for Friendly etal. (2009).
References
Friendly, M., Valero-Mora, P. and Ulargui, J. I. (2010). The First (Known) Statistical Graph: Michael Florent van Langren and the "Secret" of Longitude. The American Statistician, 64 (2), 185-191. Supplementary materials: http://datavis.ca/gallery/langren/.
Langren, M. F. van. (1644). La Verdadera Longitud por Mar y Tierra. Antwerp: (n.p.), 1644. English translation available at http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/langren/verdadera.pdf.
Lelewel, J. (1851). G?ographie du Moyen ?ge. Paris: Pilliet, 1851.
Examples
data(Langren1644)#################################################### # reproductions of Langren's graph overlaid on a map ####################################################if (require(jpeg, quietly=TRUE)) {gimage <- readJPEG(system.file("images", "google-toledo-rome3.jpg", package="HistData")) # NB: dimensions from readJPEG are y, x, colorsgdim <- dim(gimage)[1:2] ylim <- c(1,gdim[1]) xlim <- c(1,gdim[2]) op <- par(bty="n", xaxt="n", yaxt="n", mar=c(2, 1, 1, 1) + 0.1) # NB: necessary to scale the plot to the pixel coordinates, and use asp=1 plot(xlim, ylim, xlim=xlim, ylim=ylim, type="n", ann=FALSE, asp=1 ) rasterImage(gimage, 1, 1, gdim[2], gdim[1])# pixel coordinates of Toledo and Rome in the image, measured from the bottom left corner toledo.map <- c(131, 59) rome.map <- c(506, 119) # confirm locations of Toledo and Rome points(rbind(toledo.map, rome.map), cex=2) text(131, 95, "Toledo", cex=1.5) text(506, 104, "Roma", cex=1.5)# set a scale for translation of lat,long to pixel x,y scale <- data.frame(x=c(131, 856), y=c(52,52)) rownames(scale)=c(0,30)# translate from degrees longitude to pixels xlate <- function(x) { 131+x*726/30 }# draw an axis lines(scale) ticks <- xlate(seq(0,30,5)) segments(ticks, 52, ticks, 45) text(ticks, 40, seq(0,30,5)) text(xlate(8), 17, "Grados de la Longitud", cex=1.7)# label the observations with the names points(x=xlate(Langren1644$Longitude), y=rep(57, nrow(Langren1644)), pch=25, col="blue", bg="blue") text(x=xlate(Langren1644$Longitude), y=rep(57, nrow(Langren1644)), labels=Langren1644$Name, srt=90, adj=c(-.1, .5), cex=0.8) par(op) }### Original implementation using ReadImages, now deprecated & shortly to be removed ## Not run: if (require(ReadImages)) { gimage <- read.jpeg(system.file("images", "google-toledo-rome3.jpg", package="HistData")) plot(gimage) # pixel coordinates of Toledo and Rome in the image, measured from the bottom left corner toledo.map <- c(130, 59) rome.map <- c(505, 119) # confirm locations of Toledo and Rome points(rbind(toledo.map, rome.map), cex=2) # set a scale for translation of lat,long to pixel x,y scale <- data.frame(x=c(130, 856), y=c(52,52)) rownames(scale)=c(0,30) lines(scale) xlate <- function(x) { 130+x*726/30 } points(x=xlate(Langren1644$Longitude), y=rep(57, nrow(Langren1644)), pch=25, col="blue") text(x=xlate(Langren1644$Longitude), y=rep(57, nrow(Langren1644)), labels=Langren1644$Name, srt=90, adj=c(0, 0.5), cex=0.8) }## End(Not run)### First attempt using ggplot2; temporarily abandonned. ## Not run: require(maps) require(ggplot2) require(reshape) require(plyr) require(scales)# set latitude to that of Toledo Langren1644$Latitude <- 39.68#x/long y/lat bbox <- c( 38.186, -9.184, 43.692, 28.674 ) bbox <- matrix(bbox, 2, 2, byrow=TRUE)borders <- as.data.frame(map("world", plot = FALSE, xlim = expand_range(bbox[,2], 0.2), ylim = expand_range(bbox[,1], 0.2))[c("x", "y")])data(world.cities) # get actual locations of Toledo & Rome cities <- subset(world.cities, name %in% c("Rome", "Toledo") & country.etc %in% c("Spain", "Italy")) colnames(cities)[4:5]<-c("Latitude", "Longitude")mplot <- ggplot(Langren1644, aes(Longitude, Latitude) ) + geom_path(aes(x, y), borders, colour = "grey60") + geom_point(y = 40) + geom_text(aes(label = Name), y = 40.1, angle = 90, hjust = 0, size = 3) mplot <- mplot + geom_segment(aes(x=-4.03, y=40, xend=30, yend=40))mplot <- mplot + geom_point(data = cities, colour = "red", size = 2) + geom_text(data=cities, aes(label=name), color="red", size=3, vjust=-0.5) + coord_cartesian(xlim=bbox[,2], ylim=bbox[,1])# make the plot have approximately aspect ratio = 1 windows(width=10, height=2) mplot## End(Not run) ########################################### # show variation in estimates across graphs ###########################################library(lattice) graph <- paste(Langren.all$Author, Langren.all$Year) dotplot(Name ~ Longitude, data=Langren.all)dotplot( as.factor(Year) ~ Longitude, data=Langren.all, groups=Name, type="o")dotplot(Name ~ Longitude|graph, data=Langren.all, groups=graph)# why the gap? gap.mod <- glm(Gap ~ Year + Source + Latitude, family=binomial, data=Langren1644) anova(gap.mod, test="Chisq")
Dataset imported from https://www.r-project.org.