Insyt
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Part of a whole

Ternary plot

Positions observations by three nonnegative component proportions that sum to a constant.

  • Plot
  • Composition
  • Relationship

What it answers

How do three component shares trade off?

Shape
Points within a triangle
What it shows
Composition clusters and trade-offs.

Example

The question

How is each team’s time split between three kinds of work?

Share of time on build, run and support work, six teams (ternary plot)

Share of time on build, run and support work, six teams (ternary plot)Each team sits inside the triangle by its three shares. T1: build 60%, run 30%, support 10%; T2: build 20%, run 50%, support 30%; T3: build 30%, run 20%, support 50%; T4: build 45%, run 45%, support 10%; T5: build 10%, run 30%, support 60%; T6: build 34%, run 33%, support 33%.Build 100%Run 100%Support 100%T1T2T3T4T5T6Each point sumsto 100% of time
Share of time on build, run and support work, six teams (ternary plot)Each team sits inside the triangle by its three shares. T1: build 60%, run 30%, support 10%; T2: build 20%, run 50%, support 30%; T3: build 30%, run 20%, support 50%; T4: build 45%, run 45%, support 10%; T5: build 10%, run 30%, support 60%; T6: build 34%, run 33%, support 33%.Build 100%Run 100%Support 100%T1T2T3T4T5T6
Each team sits inside the triangle by its three shares. T1: build 60%, run 30%, support 10%; T2: build 20%, run 50%, support 30%; T3: build 30%, run 20%, support 50%; T4: build 45%, run 45%, support 10%; T5: build 10%, run 30%, support 60%; T6: build 34%, run 33%, support 33%.

Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.

When to use it

Use it when

Three-part compositions such as material mixtures.

Avoid it when

Independent measures that do not form a whole.

How to read it

Read proportions from the three triangular axes and confirm their sum.

Note

Normalise all three components to the same total.

The data you need

Layout
Wide composition table
Fields
ID: text; A: nonnegative number; B: nonnegative number; C: nonnegative number
One row is
One composition with three components. What is the grain?
Rules
Each row must sum to a common total such as 1 or 100, or be normalised from a positive total.
Optional
Optional group, colour or size.
Preparation
Check nonnegative components, reconcile the represented whole and aggregate duplicate categories. Define whether records are counts or already normalised shares.
Units
Three component shares sum to 1 or 100%; the common denominator is their total.
Example of the input layout: Wide composition tableA wide table: one row per item, with a separate column for each measure or period.IDABC…ABC
A wide table: one row per item, with a separate column for each measure or period.

Worked example

Composition(20,30,50) sums 100. Plot its ternary position; C contributes half and is the largest component.

IDABC
One203050
Two404020
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