Talk:Waterfall plot

Merge With Spectrogram
A waterfall plot is essentially a spectrogram. The terms are interchangable. I suggest that these two wiki pages should be merged. A waterfall plot can be 2D with color being the third dimension. A spectrogram can also be a 3D display. Confusing terminology for all the same thing. (Spectrogram 04:38, 30 April 2006 (UTC))

While I agree that they carry the same information, I'm not sure they're the same. From my limited knowledge, a waterfall plot is merely a type of 3D plot that is often used to display freq. response vs. time. Check http://www.caspur.it/risorse/softappl/doc/matlab_help/techdoc/ref/waterfall.html for details. Weston.pace 19:30, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

I have updated the information and clarified it enough that I believe it no longer needs to be merged. Weston.pace 21:27, 5 July 2007 (UTC)


 * A waterfall plot is a spectrogram that moves in the vertical direction. The key thing is that it is live data. You can't print it on paper. It is commonly used for viewing C/MT Hellschreiber transmissions. If this image were animated, it'd be a waterfall plot. AlbertCahalan 20:52, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No, there is no requirement for a waterfall plot to show "live data" (though live data can of course be plotted in this manner). Weston.page is correct, however: there is a critical difference between a spectrogram and a waterfall plot - they are not the same thing at all. &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; @en.wb 00:42, 25 March 2009 (UTC)


 * A spectrogram is a diferent animal where I come from. The data is the same but the presentation is different, and usually a spectrogram has a bit more processing.Greglocock (talk) 02:46, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Lede
Hands up everyone who thinks that a waterfall plot looks like a waterfall. I certainly don't. Greglocock (talk) 02:46, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Two-dimensional waterfall plots in clinical trials
Hi, a quite different type of (2D) plot is also called waterfall plot. Literature examples: "A waterfall plot is an ordered histogram where each patient is represented by a single vertical bar [...]. It displays the magnitude of individual patients’ responses to treatment as a percent change in measurements of their tumor(s) from baseline [...]." (from JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Volume 106, Issue 12, 1 December 2014, dju331, https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/dju331) or "In  oncology,  for  example,  a  waterfall  plot  may  be  used  to  present  each  individual  patient’s  response  to  a  particular  drug  based  on  a  parameter,  such  as  tumor  burden.  The  horizontal  (x)  axis  across  the  plot  may  serve as a baseline measure; vertical bars are drawn for each patient, either above or  below  the  baseline.  The  vertical  (y)  axis  may  be  used  to  measure  maximum  percent  change  from  baseline,  e.g.,  percent  growth  or  reduction  of  the  tumor by  radiologic  measurement." (from J Adv Pract Oncol. 2012 Mar-Apr; 3(2): 106–111. ). --Biologos (talk) 15:28, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Use as a form of pareto chart
In my opinion the current definition of waterfall plot is too narrow. It assumes that time is necessarily one of the dimensions of the plot. It also assumes that it is necessarily a 3D plot (which isn't the case as per an earlier entry on this talk page). I have seen waterfall plots used as a variant of pareto charts, where each bar begins where the previous bar ends, and where the bar chart is shown horizontally rather than vertically. Such plots actually resemble waterfalls, so in my view they would also be a better choice to illustrate the concept than the illustration shown in the article, because the centre frequencies of these radio stations are too stable to see the effect of the chart). Even if there is no agreement that the variant of pareto charts I described above are waterfall charts, the illustration shown on the spread spectrum is a better choice for demonstrating the article's current definition. I will give some thought to generalising the definition and if I don't forget will come back in a few days to make some edits to the article. I will already go ahead and replace the illustration though. JanCeuleers (talk) 07:54, 16 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I just noticed the reference to waterfall chart. Pretty obscure. I think it would be better to merge the two. JanCeuleers (talk) 07:58, 16 September 2018 (UTC)