Year
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Rainfall
4.5
4.4
4.1
4.2
3.9
4.0
Alex used the data to make the graph below.
A line graph representing the data in the table is shown.A line graph is titled July Rainfall.
The horizontal axis is labeled Year and is equally spaced. The axis scale starts at 2006 increases by 1 until ending at 2011.
The vertical axis is labeled Rainfall in inches and is equally spaced. The axis scale starts at 3.6 and increases by 0.1 until ending at 4.6.
The data points represented in the tabled are connected by line segments from left to right.
a) In what way could the graph be misleading?
b) How could you redraw the graph so that it is less misleading?
a) The graph could be misleading if the y-axis scale was too small, making the differences in rainfall between the years appear insignificant. It could also be misleading if the line connecting the data points was not smooth and gave the impression of sudden drops or spikes in rainfall.
b) To make the graph less misleading, the y-axis scale could be increased to show a larger range of rainfall values. Additionally, the line connecting the data points could be smoothed out to give a more accurate representation of the overall trend in rainfall over the years. The graph could also include labels or annotations to provide context for any significant events or factors that may have affected the rainfall during certain years.