Methods of vectors have an aim to show different spatial transferences of natural and socio-economic character (sea currents, routes of goods' transportation, direction of winds blowing, etc.). Motion symbols are often used for visual representation of war plans and actions. Different connections: economic, cultural, trade, transport, finance, political, humanitarian, etc.
Vectors can be used for events that have different character of marking: for dotty events (for example, rout of traveler), linear (movement of fronts); area (sea currents), scattered (migration of animals and birds); solid spreading (movement of air masses).
The main meaning of representation of connections and motion are vectors, i.e. arrows that can differ from each other by orientation, shape, size, color, brightness and inner structure. Width and length of the vector are the indexes that are used for differentiation of vector by the size.
Another popular graphical mean is stripes (bars). Their width reflects capacity of freight flow and traffic flow, etc. If the task become more complicated and it is necessary to represent the flow's structure, for example, to distinguish the main kinds of cargo, the stripes of the direct and back flow are divided into parts in proportion to the weight of the goods. Then these parts are either painted or hatched, and their size points to the volume of carried freights.
Motion symbols can represent routes of motion exactly and schematically. Vectors coincide with railways, highways, waterways or show real routs when the plan is exact. Schematic routes are marked voluntary between the initial and the end point of the motion. Sometimes it is advisable because it helps to simplify the map and make it clear. This is important in case when there is a task to show the movement itself, while the real rout is of not important
On the electronic maps it is possible to show vectors in dynamic. For example the vectors of ocean currents can be represented with the help of animation: arrows of different colors for temperature differentiation and arrows of different width for the characteristic of the event's recurrence.
