perthirtysix.com

# PerThirtySix

> Thoughtful, data-driven explorations of sports, culture, and the world — interactive essays, tools, and visualizations.

PerThirtySix publishes interactive essays and visualization tools spanning the NBA, NFL, civic data, science, and games. Most pages are visual and JavaScript-driven; this index points to the canonical URLs and the markdown sources where available.

- Site: https://perthirtysix.com
- RSS: https://perthirtysix.com/rss.xml
- Sitemap: https://perthirtysix.com/sitemap.xml
- Full content (concatenated essay markdown): https://perthirtysix.com/llms-full.txt
- Individual essays are also available as raw markdown by appending `.md` to any `/essay/<slug>` URL.

## Play

Games, interactive visualizations, and playful experiments from PerThirtySix.

- [DC In 3D](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/dc-roads): An interactive 3D view of the roads and metro stations of Washington, DC.
- [Drumroll: The Ultimate Rhythm Challenge](https://perthirtysix.com/game/drumroll): Test your rhythm and timing in Drumroll! Press keys faster and faster to achieve the highest score. How many presses can you achieve before the sequence breaks?
- [The Communal Plot](https://perthirtysix.com/communal-plot-daily-poll): Answer a new question every day and watch as your response joins others to create a living, evolving data visualization that updates in real-time.
- [Pokémon Explorer](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/pokemon-explorer): Explore 9 generations of Pokémon. Filter by type and stats, and scout any Pokémon by using the interactive visualization.
- [Visual Wordle Solver](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/wordle-solver): All 2,309 words interactively laid out.
- [Every Winning Streak On Jeopardy](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/jeopardy-win-streaks): Exploring streaks on Jeopardy since the 5-day win cap was removed.

## Learn

Interactive deep dives into how systems work, from QR codes to the smoothness of our planet.

- [How The Heck Do Traffic Lights Work?](https://perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck-do-traffic-lights-work): How Victorian railway semaphores evolved into modern traffic systems.
- [How The Heck Do Solar Panels Work?](https://perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck-do-solar-panels-work): How a giant nuclear reactor in the sky and some silicon makes electricity, and why that's the easy part.
- [How The Heck Does Shazam Work?](https://perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck-does-shazam-work): How audio fingerprinting and a connect-the-dots trick lets Shazam identify a song in seconds.
- [How The Heck Does GPS Work?](https://perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck-does-gps-work): How geometry, stopwatches, and Einstein's theories work together to make GPS possible.
- [Simulating The Prisoner's Dilemma](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/prisoners-dilemma-simulator): To betray, or not to betray?
- [How The Heck Do QR Codes Work?](https://perthirtysix.com/how-the-heck-do-qr-codes-work): How black-and-white squares encode URLs, error-correct themselves, and survive coffee stains.
- [The Counterintuitive Birthday Paradox](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/birthday-paradox): Simulate the probabilities of shared birthdays in a group.
- [How Smooth Is The Earth, Really?](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/earth-smoothness): Visualize elevation data with a 3D globe.
- [Making Sense of Voting Systems](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/voting-systems-simulator): Interactively explore how different voting systems can yield different outcomes.
- [Lottery Simulator](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/lottery-simulator): Interactively explore lottery probabilities and simulate thousands of tickets in seconds.

## World

Explorations of topics that affect us all, from climate change to global economics.

- [What If TikTok Had A Paper Trail?](https://perthirtysix.com/what-if-tiktok-had-a-paper-trail): A thought experiment for infinite feeds on physical media.
- [America Gets Wealthier But The Poor Get Poorer](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/american-wealth-inequality): An interactive exploration of American wealth inequality using data visualizations.
- [A Data-Driven Analysis Of Voter Fraud Claims](https://perthirtysix.com/data-driven-analysis-voter-fraud-claims): A data-driven analysis of voter fraud claims, their real-world impact, and the misleading narratives that fuel them.
- [Does Regulatory Quality Drive Prosperity?](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/regulatory-jobs-data-explorer): Explore regulatory job data with interactive visualizations.
- [Visualizing Global Wealth Inequality](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/global-wealth-inequality): Explore global wealth inequality with an interactive visualization.
- [How Far Would $1 From 1999 Go Today?](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/visualizing-american-inflation): Visualizing Consumer Price Index data across eight categories.
- [Our Reddening Globe](https://perthirtysix.com/tool/climate-change-globe): Visualize climate change data with a 3D globe.

## Craft

Meta pieces around the craft of data visualization, storytelling, and design.

- [Is Music Just Sound?](https://perthirtysix.com/is-music-just-sound): A creative technologist's perspective on AI-generated music.
- [Explore Creative Coding with 30 Hands-On p5.js Sketches](https://perthirtysix.com/explore-creative-coding-with-30-p5js-sketches): A collection of 30 hands-on p5.js sketches designed to inspire creative coding. Explore generative art, animation, and interactive design through playful experimentation.
- [Visualizing Data Is An Art - We Should Treat It Like One](https://perthirtysix.com/visualizing-data-is-an-art): The case for less rigor and more nuance.
- [Genuary: 31 Days Of Creative Coding](https://perthirtysix.com/genuary2025): A collection of 31 creative coding sketches for Genuary 2025.
- [Happiness - A Data Viz Meta Analysis](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/happiness-data-viz-meta-analysis): Diving into different ways to visualize happiness data.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-introduction): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-data): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-considerations): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-sketching): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-design): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-coding): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.
- [Data With Dorrie](https://perthirtysix.com/guide/data-with-dorrie-viz): A gentle introduction to interactive data visualization.

## NBA

Beautiful and bespoke visualizations exploring the NBA's history, players, and trends.

- [The Curry Paradox](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/curry-paradox): Why a less surprising shot can be more impressive than a wilder one, and what information theory says about it.
- [Create a Custom NBA Metric](https://perthirtysix.com/nba/create-advanced-metric): Design your own metric for ranking the best players in the NBA.
- [Empty Arenas: Every Shooter's Dream?](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/nba-crowd-size-analysis): An in depth analysis of a crowd's impact on shooting percentage.
- [Home Court Advantage? For Some Teams](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/2021-nba-playoff-crowds): The number of fans allowed at each stadium in the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
- [NBA Shot Charts](https://perthirtysix.com/nba/player-shot-chart): Create highly customized and interactive shot charts for the NBA.
- [The Great MVP Race](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/2023-nba-mvp-race): Building a machine learning model to predict the future and evaluate the past of the NBA's most valuable players.
- [Did LeBron Get Too Good Too Fast?](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/lebron-too-good-too-fast): A retrospective and thought experiment on LeBron James' first Cleveland stint.
- [NBA Top Hustle Player Index](https://perthirtysix.com/nba/top-hustle-players): Design your own metric to capture the things that don't normally show up on the box score.
- [NBA Team Passing Wheels](https://perthirtysix.com/nba/team-passes): A way to visualize passing on your favorite NBA team.
- [A Guide to Winning March Madness](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/guide-to-winning-march-madness): Some non-trivial tips to win your NCAA Tournament prediction pool.

## NFL

Custom analyses and visualizations around the NFL, from the draft to scorigami.

- [Scoring the 2026 NFL Draft Trades](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/draft/trades/season/2026): Every pick-for-pick trade from the 2026 NFL Draft, scored by the best-player test.
- [NFL Draft Efficiency by Position](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/draft/efficiency-by-position): Every NFL team ranked at every position, based on twenty years of draft outcomes.
- [NFL Draft Report Cards](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/draft/report-card): Every NFL franchise graded on two decades of drafting.
- [Are NFL Teams Getting Better at Drafting?](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/nfl-draft-efficiency): Fifteen years of draft data evaluated against career outcomes.
- [The Draft Pick Value Curve](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/nfl-draft-expected-value-curve): What should a team expect from each pick slot? Building a baseline from 15 years of data.
- [Introducing pVAR](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/nfl-player-value-above-replacement-pvar): A value-above-replacement metric for NFL draft picks, built on per-snap grades, career stats, and awards.
- [Scorigami: Every NFL Score Ever](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/scorigami): Explore every NFL score ever with our interactive visualization.
- [NFL Draft History & Analysis](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/draft/season): Complete draft analysis with redraft rankings and team performance grades.
- [NFL Draft: Best Picks and Biggest Busts](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/draft/bests-and-busts): Explore 20 years of NFL draft surprises.
- [NFL Results Explorer](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/results): Explore over 25 years of upsets and blowouts.
- [NFL Heart Rate Index](https://perthirtysix.com/nfl/heartrate): Explore the most exciting NFL games using play-by-play win probability analysis.
- [The NFL Heart Rate Index](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/nfl-heartrate-index): Measuring the best games with play-by-play win probability analysis.
- [NFL Standings History](https://perthirtysix.com/essay/nfl-standings-history): Explore the final standings of each season in the NFL since the division re-alignment.