In physics and other sciences, numerical simulation is an indispensable tool for describing and understanding complex phenomena. Examples abound, particularly in particle and wave propagation and the study of spatial and temporal evolution, such as of irradiation or pollution. Visualization is a familiar and useful companion tool in that respect, to illustrate multidimensional physical data such as electron shells, for example, or to graph distributions of geophysical stresses and strains. In those depictions and innumerable others, a physical quantity is expressed in a color scale. Often, large values are depicted by red and small values by blue, a scheme that mimics the subjective impression of heat. Physical or other data are thus transferred to an intuitive scale to match the needs of human visual perception.

Visualization is often used in the field of acoustics as well—for instance, to mark loud and quiet zones in noise maps with hot and cold...

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