In the 1200s, philosopher and logician Ramon Llull (sometimes spelled Lull) of Majorca used a similar type of diagram, wrote author M.E. He wrote about them in an 1880 paper entitled “On the Diagrammatic and Mechanical Representation of Propositions and Reasonings” in the Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science.īut the roots of this type of diagram go back much further, at least 600 years. Venn diagrams are named after British logician John Venn.
Venn diagrams show relationships even if a set is empty. They are closely related to Euler diagrams, which differ by omitting sets if no items exist in them. Venn diagrams allow users to visualize data in clear, powerful ways, and therefore are commonly used in presentations and reports. They are used to think through and depict how items relate to each within a particular “universe” or segment. These may be simple diagrams involving two or three sets of a few elements, or they may become quite sophisticated, including 3D presentations, as they progress to six or seven sets and beyond. Many people first encounter them in school as they study math or logic, since Venn diagrams became part of “new math” curricula in the 1960s. Venn diagrams, also called Set diagrams or Logic diagrams, are widely used in mathematics, statistics, logic, teaching, linguistics, computer science and business. Often, they serve to graphically organize things, highlighting how the items are similar and different. If two or more subjects have a feature in common, place that feature in the section in which all such shapes overlap.A Venn diagram uses overlapping circles or other shapes to illustrate the logical relationships between two or more sets of items. Inside each circle place characteristics that are unique to that specific item or idea, and are not true of any of the other topics. It may be useful to distinguish the titles from other text by placing them in a box or altering their font or color. Avoid writing the titles inside neighboring circles in order to maintain clarity. Near or inside of each circle place the name of the topic or item which the circle represents. Every circle should overlap with at least one other circle. Place a descriptive title at the top of the page.
The first step to creating a Venn diagram is deciding what to compare.Watch this quick video tutorial on creating Venn diagrams with SmartDraw. Their function varies from an informative poster to a decision-making tool. Venn diagrams are useful in any situation requiring a direct comparison of two or more categories or concepts. If all the features of one entity are among additional features of another entity, the entire shape of the first entity is contained within that of the second. Items unique to only one entity are written in the non-overlapping part of their respective shapes. Characteristics the two entities have in common are found where the shapes overlap. While it's not required that you use a circle, it's probably the most convenient shape because several circles can overlap easily.Įach shape represents some group or entity.
It consists of a series of shapes - usually circles - whose edges overlap. A Venn diagram is a visual depiction of the similarities and differences between two or more different items.