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: 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; measuring the selected parameters of interest; transmitting the measurements to a processor; processing the measurements using the processor to determine a physical condition for a selected segment of the drill string; providing a display device for pictorially representing an image of the selected segment of the drill string; and indicating the determined physical condition for the selected segment of the drill string by providing a visual signal on the image.