What data do you have?
It has a dimension.
- Scalars, vectors, tensors
- In a 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D space
Often raw data is of even higher dimensionality and defines several vectors
and tensors at every point in space.
It can often be helpful to respect that what your data means when you show it. If
it's a latitude and longitude, show it on a model of the earth. If it's a crystallographic
orientation, show it in Rodrigues Space.
Choose your representation
Once you know you
want to see something specific, like a vector field in two dimensions,
there are still a lot of options. There may be only one option in Mathematica, which
is a regular array of little arrows, but several tools offer other representations.
The regular array of arrow glyphs is old school. Arrow glyphs look much better if
placed along streamlines, and many prefer to use the line-integral convolution technique,
shown below in an image from Bill Martin at Utah.
Exercise choice in what you show. There may be things you haven't seen before, and
we are happy to help.
