Numbers alone often mean very little. But when we can see their effects, our understanding changes. Data visualisation helps us to understand what is happening in the world. This video from BBC Ideas explores five charts that changed history — from Florence Nightingale's 'Coxcomb' diagram to the warming stripes.
How did these charts change the world?
An attendee queueing to pass security wears a face mask with a graphic, created by University of Reading climate scientist Ed Hawkins, to represent global temperature rises, outside the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow on November 1, 2021 on the second day of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. - More than 120 world leaders meet in Glasgow in a "last, best hope" to tackle the climate crisis and avert a looming global disaster. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)