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Post your top 5 N-grams here!
Hello TEDsters,
the N-grams are definitely a lot of fun and I have noticed that quite a few have already been posted in the talk's own thread. In order to avoid that thread becoming too confusing and in order to give this some structure I thought I'd start a conversation for you to post the N-grams you find most informative, interesting, funny etc.
I have "limited" the ammount to 5 in order to "force" you to only post the best. :)
Looking forward to some cool N-grams and even more than this to interesting discussions about the meaning hidden behind them.
Sincerely
Sabin
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Feisal Kamil
I find it fun to guess the graph before actually taking a look...
http://goo.gl/0EqXS
did you guess right? (the spike in 1746 isn't talking about our Fred, though)
Sietse Sterrenburg 10+
And I like how Bach dwarfs the others: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=beethoven%2Cwagner%2Cmozart%2Cchopin%2C+bach&year_start=1600&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=10
(might be related to the use of capitals and general occurrences of the surnames so I added first names here and left out Richard Wagner because I think it's a quite often used name in general: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=Ludwig+van+Beethoven%2CWolfgang+Amadeus+Mozart%2CFr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric+Chopin%2CJohann+Sebastian+Bach&year_start=1600&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=10
this gives a whole different view!
Feisal Kamil
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=Ludwig+van+Beethoven%2CWolfgang+Amadeus+Mozart%2CFrederic+Chopin%2CJohann+Sebastian+Bach&year_start=1600&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=10
Feisal Kamil
Elvis, Michael Jackson and Madonna.
http://goo.gl/aAp6m
(unfair fight, I bet Madonna had divine help - but there's no doubt who's King)
Debra Smith 200+
Sietse Sterrenburg 10+
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=Elvis+Presley%2CMichael+Jackson%2CJohann+Sebastian+Bach&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=10
(might the classics-king make a come-back in the coming decennia... Who knows...? What a cliffhanger! )
In the mean time I keep wondering why Aristotle was ignored in the 18th century:
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=Plato%2CSocrates%2CAristotle&year_start=1600&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=10
And what created the common interest in Newton and Julius Ceasar in the early 19th century, and more curiously, why did the interest in Newton decline after the 1850's while Julius Ceasar in the same period actually gained in interest? http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=Isaac+Newton%2C+Julius+Caesar&year_start=1600&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=10
(This is a lot of fun!! :) )
Feisal Kamil
so here's Lennon & McCartney - http://goo.gl/z07lj
surprisingly there's no spike around 1980 or so in Lennon's chart
Debra Smith 200+
Jelle Jan Bankert 10+
smoothing set to 0
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=John+Lennon%2CPaul+McCartney&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0
with smoothing at 2 it's even more apparent
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=John+Lennon%2CPaul+McCartney&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=2
Feisal Kamil
Sietse Sterrenburg 10+
Feisal Kamil
but I would guess that Caesar enjoyed longevity because of the Shakespeare play (from 1599, but I bet it keeps getting reprinted, reenacted, reviewed ad infinitum) and not because of anyone's continuing interest in Roman History ;)
On the other hand, Newton probably suffered after 1916 because of Einstein's General Relativity got more print
I wish I'd paid more attention to History in school haha. Perhaps if it was as interesting as this...
Debra Smith 200+
Good reasoning on Shakespeare too.