Continuum

A Continuum may be used for time lines showing historical events, the comparative ages of people/animals/
planets/cultures, weight, temperature, political philosophies (liberal to conservative), speed/velocity, or rating scales (grades/averages).

Starting points:
What is being scaled?
What are the end points or extremes?


                                        continuum gif




Paul J. Gans of New York University has developed The Medieval Technology Timeline. < http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/Timeline.html >  Part of the timeline is reproduced here as an example. 


600 -- 800
The heavy plow is in use in Northern Italy (the Po valley) by the 8th century.
The stirrup arrives in Europe from China in the early 8th century.
Estimated urban population in 737 AD.

700  --  900
The heavy plow is in use in the Rhineland in the early 8th century
The horse collar first appears in Europe.
The use of soap , a Gaulish invention, spreads through Europe.


While this type of interactive timeline does provide a useful tool, it might be somewhat more effective by converting it to a more graphic format.

600 -- 800

The heavy plow  used in Northern Italy (the Po valley) by the 8th century.

The stirrup arrived in Europe from China in the early 8th century.

Estimated urban population in 737 AD.

700  --  900

The heavy plow   used in the Rhineland in the early 8th century

The horse collar first appeared in Europe.

The use of soap , a Gaulish invention, spread through Europe.





Hyperhistory < http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html > provides an interactive timeline that allows students to see 3,000 years of world history with an interactive combination of synchronoptic lifelines, timelines, and maps.

Navigation is made easy because the permanent Menu Panel on the left allows anybody to switch effortlessly from one category to another. The separate Text Panel on the right allows instant display of scripts while retaining the context provided by the synchronoptic graphics inside the Main Panel. Short and concise texts provide quick information, while a book text of 126 chapters (written by Frank A. Smitha) adds a comprehensive survey of world history.A Color Code distinguishing clearly between science, culture, religion and politics helps to absorb with ease an overwhelming amount of information. Over 2,000 files are interconnected throughout the site. In addition to that HyperHistory provides several hundred links to the world wide web.


Wildernes Continuum Map < http://www.stthomas.edu/geog/GEOG_222/Wilderness%20Project/wilderness_continuum_map.htm >