Multi-dimensional plots

Question

I'm trying to visualize a set of multi-dimensional data. It includes columns like timestamp, length, width, height, speed, score, and more. I would like to visualize all of the data in some sort of chart. I like the idea of an intensity plot (http://www.phasespace.com.au/surface%5Fex.htm). I also saw some nice screenshots of R (http://www.r-project.org/). I would also consider an animation loop to squeeze in the time dimension, but it's not necessary.

What are good ways of showing several dimensions of data at the same time? Most of the data is numeric. It doesn't have to be pretty, but I would like something fairly simple and easy to understand. It would be even better if I can easily print it with only black ink.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

How about one of those star-like graphs that have a radial spoke for each dimension?

I found a (not so pretty) example on Google image search: http://support.sas.com/kb/25/addl/fusion25515%5F1%5Fgchdscrta.gif

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There is also another graph that is basically a pie-chart where the width of the slices doesn't change, their height does: http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/graphiques/graph%5F63.png