Origin's Ternary diagram can be used to represent the relative percentages of three components (X, Y, and Z). The components in a ternary plot can be anything from three minerals, to three elements, to three size classes. This type of chart is used for a wide variety of applications in the Earth Sciences, including illustrating rock classification schemes and depicting chemical compositions.

Example teranry plot from our Graph Gallery
[click on an image to see original graph]

Ternary Graph

Ternary Diagram Example

Each row of X, Y, and Z values in a worksheet determines a data point in the ternary diagram.

• Values for the Y component are read from 0.00 at the lower-right corner of the triangle, to 1.00 at the peak of the triangle.
• Values for the Z component are read from 1.00 at the lower-left corner of the triangle, to 0.00 at the peak of the triangle.
• Values for the X component are read from 0.00 at the lower-left corner of the triangle to 1.00 at the lower-right corner of the triangle.

When plotting XYZ data as a ternary diagram, Origin assumes that each row of X, Y, and Z values are normalized (so that X+Y+Z = 1). If your data are not normalized, Origin will do this for you.

The default plot type for each data set in a ternary plot is Scatter, but Line (as seen in the example at right) or Line & Symbol plots can be used.

Line plot details...
Scatter plot details...
Line & Symbol plot details...

This Ternary plot displays the packing fraction when three particle types are combined. The data for each line plot is stored as a list of XYZ values in a worksheet. The lines are labeled with their corresponding packing fraction values. Color and width attributes of the lines have been set to enhance the presentation. Learn more...