A Varignon frame is a system of weights and pulleys used by geographers to help determine optimum location. For example, the weights might represent the relative cost of transporting particular goods to or from particular locations, to help a firm decide the most cost effective site to locate a prospective production facility.
In this drawing of a Varignon frame, the weights are represented as orange cubes. The blue plane could be a map, and the point where all the "strings" meet would indicate the optimum location where the sum of the weights times the distances from this point to the holes (facility locations) is minimum.
Famous quotes containing the word frame:
“Painting seems to be to the eye what dancing is to the limbs. When that has educated the frame to self-possession, to nimbleness, to grace, the steps of the dancing-master are better forgotten; so painting teaches me the splendor of color and the expression of form, and as I see many pictures and higher genius in the art, I see the boundless opulence of the pencil, the indifferency in which the artist stands free to choose out of the possible forms.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)