Top 5 Infographics of 2024

A great explanation can paint a picture in your mind. But for engineering systems and complex arrays of information, infographics can relay an entire set of relationships in a glance. At ASME.org, our most-viewed infographics in 2024 covered a wide range of topics. We looked at the top markets for electric vehicles and showed how China came to dominate sales figures. We focused on the nuclear industry landscape amid concerns over cost and reliability. We charted the astonishing jump in satellite launches. But our top-read infographic explained the basic thermodynamics of the heat-pump cycle.
 

How Heat Pumps Work

Indoor pollution from burning natural gas in stoves, furnaces, and water heaters has received a lot of attention of late, which made this primer on the workings of the heat pump our most popular infographic in 2024. Heat pumps improve on standard electric heating, and by some estimates, the amount of thermal energy a heat pump can bring to a space can be as much as twice the energy content of the electricity needed to run the device.

 

Electric Vehicle Sales Worldwide

While electric vehicle sales in the United States have fallen short of expectations, around the world, EV sales are booming. A lot of that is driven by China—both in the manufacture of EVs for export as well as the sales of battery-powered cars in the world’s largest auto market. In this infographic, we showed that one factor is the low cost of electricity in China, which makes EVs incredibly cheap to run.

 

By The Numbers: Where MEs Work and How Much They Earn

Mechanical engineers make nearly 50 percent more money per year than the average worker. But as displayed in this infographic, where MEs work can determine how much they get paid. We imagine there were a lot of engineers checking out moving to New Mexico, which had the highest average pay for MEs.

 

The American Nuclear Landscape 2024

Nealy half the carbon-free electricity in the United States comes from nuclear power. That’s just one of the amazing nuclear facts provided in this popular infographic, which drew on figures from the U.S. Department of Energy.  

 

Satellites and Space Objects Abound

There are more than 11,500 metric tons of objects in orbit, everything from a small bits of debris and small satellites to the massive International Space Station. In the past few years, that number has increased dramatically as communications satellites such as the SpaceX Starlink have created new, mobile constellations. This infographic takes a deep dive into what’s circling overhead.