Tracy-Widom Universality: A Mathe-magical Circle

Animated Editorial Science Illustration • Quanta Magazine • 2014
Black and white graphic: interconnected symbols related to ideas in math and universality, arranged in a circle. Centered in the circle is the Tracy-Widom Distribution, symbolized by bell curves.

FOR
Quanta Magazine, 2014. Reuse prohibited.

WORK
Art direction, concepts, GIF art

TOOLS
Illustrator, Photoshop

INFO
Animated illustration for a Quanta Magazine article by Natalie Wolchover: At the Far Ends of a New Universal Law.

One of my favorite infographics to date (and one of the first I ever made for Quanta after joining in 2014). I had a weird idea to create an animated magic circle to symbolize the Tracy-Widom distribution’s universality.

Black and white graphic: interconnected symbols related to ideas in math and universality, arranged in a circle. Centered in the circle is the Tracy-Widom Distribution, symbolized by bell curves.

Still version

© Olena Shmahalo