Fear of Ellipses

Originally, scientists felt that fallout from nuclear weapons would be relatively contained. Once they realized that this was not the case and that radioactive particles could travel great distances, they began to develop maps suggesting what area would be affected based on wind patterns. These maps were composed of a series of dots (assumed targets) and ellipses (assumed fallout patterns). They were cartographic representations aimed at guessing the size of the bruise after a punch.