The table shows the rainfall, in inches, in the month of July for the years 2006 through 2011.
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 vertical axis is not labeled or scaled properly. If the scale is too small or too large, it could make small differences in rainfall appear larger or smaller than they actually are.
b) To make the graph less misleading, the vertical axis could be labeled with the actual values of rainfall in inches and the scale could be adjusted accordingly. For example, the scale could start at 3.5 and increase by 0.1 until ending at 4.6. Additionally, the line segments connecting the data points could be thicker and more visible to make it clear that they represent individual measurements and not a continuous trend. Finally, a title or caption could be added to clarify the purpose of the graph and the time period that the data covers.