1. A method of controlling the drilling of a wellbore using a drill string formed of jointed tubulars and having a bottomhole assembly (BHA) coupled to an end thereof, the method comprising: (a) providing a plurality of distributed sensors along at least a portion of the jointed tubulars and at the BHA, the distributed sensors being configured to measure one or more selected parameters of interest; (b) measuring the selected parameters of interest; (c) transmitting the measurements to a processor; (d) processing the measurements using the processor to determine a physical condition for a selected segment of the drill string; (e) providing a display device for pictorially representing an image of the selected segment of the drill string; and (f) indicating the determined physical condition for the selected segment of the drill string by providing a visual signal on the image.