Question

math and art might seem like uneasy allies in the battle of persuasion, but data visualization has a history of influential victories. to trace a london cholera outbreak in 1854, john snow drew a city map with black bars that represented cholera victims. many bars were clustered around a single water pump, which was later closed, ending the outbreak. later, president lincoln used a groundbreaking map illustrating slave population density to predict where union troops might encounter the most confederate resistance. in the crimean war, florence nightingale developed a \polar area chart\ to demonstrate that hygiene improvements would save many soldiers lives. why does the author use battle imagery in the opening sentence? 1 to demonstrate that data visualization can only be valuable when used in wartime 2 to suggest that data visualization can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands 3 to indicate that data visualization can be utilized for very serious purposes

Explanation:

The passage gives examples of data - visualization in important contexts like disease control, military strategy, and public health improvement. Battle imagery emphasizes the high - stakes and serious nature of these uses.

Answer:

1. to indicate that data visualization can be utilized for very serious purposes