The BBC has a short article discussing some of the most famous visualizations in the world, including Newton’s diagram of light.
By representing light as lines Newton is able to use mathematics and geometry to predict the behaviour of light. It was a revolutionary idea. Look at the light that illuminates the world around you. There are no lines. Newton’s diagram translates the slippery science of optics into the concrete world of geometry where mathematics becomes the eyes to see what is happening to light.
In addition they discuss Copernicus’s famous Solar system diagram, the Pioneer Plaque, and Florence Nightingale’s Crimean army charts.
