What Is a Venn Diagram?
A Venn diagram is an depiction that uses circles to show the relationships among things or finite groups of things. Circles that lap have a commonality while circles that do not overlap do not share those traits.
Venn diagrams help to visually state the similarities and differences between two concepts. They have long been recognized for their usefulness as educational agencies. Since the mid-20th century, Venn diagrams have been used as part of the introductory logic curriculum and in elementary-level instructive plans around the world.
Key Takeaways
- A Venn diagram uses circles that overlap or don’t overlap to show the commonalities and quarrels among things or groups of things.
- Things that have commonalities are shown as overlapping circles while factors that are distinct stand alone.
- Venn diagrams are now used as illustrations in business and in many academic fields.
Estimation the Venn Diagram
The English logician John Venn popularized the diagram in the 1880s. He called them Eulerian coteries after the Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler, who created similar diagrams in the 1700s.
The term Venn diagram did not manifest until 1918 when Clarence Lewis, an American academic philosopher and the eventual founder of conceptual pragmatism, referred to the ring-shaped depiction as the Venn diagram in his book A Survey of Symbolic Logic.
Venn diagrams have been used since the mid-20th century in classrooms from the easy school level to introductory logic.
Venn studied and taught logic and probability theory at Cambridge University, where he happened his method of using diagrams to illustrate the branch of mathematics known as set theory.
Venn published a precedent-setting work, The Intelligence of Chance, which explained the frequency theory of probability. In it, he argued that probability, contrary to popular assumption, should be installed based on the regularity with which something is predicted to occur.
In another book, Symbolic Logic, he built on and amplified mathematician George Boole’s theories on
Examples of Venn Diagrams
A Venn diagram could be drawn to illustrate fruits that succeed in red or orange colors. Below, we can see that there are orange fruits (circle B) such as persimmons and tangerines while apples and cherries (cordon A) come in red colors. Peppers and tomatoes come in both red and orange colors, as represented by the overlapping area of the two circles.
You might also draw a Venn diagram to help decide which of two cars to obtain. The Venn diagram shows the features that are exclusive to each car and the features that both cars have.
Lower than, we see that Car A is a sedan that’s powered by gasoline and gets 20 miles per gallon, while Car B is a hybrid, gets 40 miles-per-gallon for mileage, and is a hatchback.
The shaded region where the two circles overlap show the features that both transports have in common, which include a radio, 4 doors, Bluetooth capability, and airbags.
The Venn diagram graphically conveys the similarities and distinctions between the two cars to help decide which to purchase.