The Greatest Ever Infographic - Numberphile

Infographics are not new.. in 1862 Charles Joseph Minard created a much-praised infographic depicting Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.
More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓

NUMBERPHILE

Videos by Brady Haran

[LupeFenrir]

As they say: the death of one is a tragedy, the death of 412000 is a great infographic.

[kurzgesagt]

Good thing future generations learned from that and never again tried to attack russia in winter. Wait a second...

[Nehmo]

If you were a ghost of one of Napoleon's men viewing this, you could at least say your death was not in vain as it contributed to the thinning of the infographic line.

[dangerouslytalented]

and my great great great great grandfather (maybe five greats I don't know) was one of those deserters, ended up in Sweden.

[achtungcircus]

It's likely been mentioned, but the temperature is not given in Celius.

It's given in Reamur degrees, 25% larger than Celsius, meaning it was 25% colder.

[colinpovey]

Saw this in a history class book in College. It is indeed an amazing graphic. So clear, instantly understandable.

[MrSchalalaaa]

Great video. Just one little thing: The map uses the Réaumur scale, not celsius. A lot of people don't realize this when they are interpreting this infograph.
Doesn't make that big of a difference.

[xTreetable]

That's a really interesting graphic. Thanks, Brady and James! I'll use this for a school project next month. Again, thanks a lot!

[DeathBringer]

Gotta love how efficient that one visual piece is at representing six different varying points of data.

[gahiji]

I don't always understand the videos that numberphile puts up, but when I do, I think it's absolutely beautiful...

[daledude]

Day9 has this as a poster on his wall and I always wondered what it was! Now I know, thanks!

[EmperorTigerstar]

Lithuania and Belarus were a part of Russia at the time. Great info-graphic though. :D

[orangegold]

They could have combined temperature with the original graph by making the whole first graph change colors from red to blue depending on temperature! (You'll say it's not easy to tell by a color what the temperature is, but it's also not easy by a width to tell what the population is, just add a little number next to it like they did for the size of the army (width), but for the temperature (color)

[smartcow]

This is my favorite guy on number phile

[bentoth]

"You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia""

[Mocsk]

Great infographic, but it would be a bit more interesting for the western viewers, who are usually completely determined that weather and landscape did all the fighting for Russians, to include all the smaller battles between the armies on their way to Moscow, and especially back from it. But of course it wouldn't be so neat and tidy as right now.

For example, after Napoleon left Moscow, Kutuzov would constantly keep his army to the south of Napoleons to make sure he can't retreat south and wait out the winter there, to start a new campaign in spring as he intended to do. Meanwhile, the stretched out marching Napoleons army would be constantly attacked by Russian cavalry from the rear, while another large Russian army (that got there right around the time Napoleon left Moscow) would constantly march west to the north from Napoleon. So if Napoleon would decide to stop marching west, he would immediately be encircled and attacked from all directions by two armies and a large cavalry corps.

Another example is the "disastrous river crossing" – it was disastrous not because of river or crossing, but because Russian forces attacked the French right when they were crossing the river, causing severe casualties for the Napoleons army.

And when I say French I of course mean the Napoleon's army in general, because out of 420, 000 only something about 150, 000 were actually French. So as in WW2, Russia was pretty much fighting against the united europe.

Another thing that this infographic doesn't show is that Napoleons march to the west didn't end at Neman – it continued all the way to France, where Russian forces marched into Paris, thus ending the rule of Napoleon at the peak of his glory and power, after which he was exiled to Elba. Of course, he came back some time later, formed a somewhat strong army, got to rule a couple of months and then got beaten by mostly the English. Who now are sure that it is they who ultimately defeated Napoleon.

[terryhickman]

I've kept a copy of that infographic with me all through and since grad school (*quite* a number of years ago), it's so mind-blowingly brilliant. I think I came across it in my grad stats course. A thing of beauty, conveying a very ugly event.

[Jargonfox]

Oh man I saw this infographic at school, even when I first saw it I thought it was pretty cleverly and awesomely made, even though it kinda confused me, but I got the basic gist of it, but this video definetely cleared it further.

[erumaayuuki]

Great infographic. Taught me more about Napoleon then my history teacher did.
Looks a bit like a Sankey Diagram, very clear and illustrating.

[Upthevacuumthingy]

So *that's* what the picture on Day[9]'s wall is. That's been puzzling me for ages. Thanks for solving that for me Brady!