Worked Example 1
Favourite sports of 40 students: football 16, cricket 10, volleyball 8, badminton 6.
Choose the scale0 to 20 in steps of 2, starting at zero
Draw the barsFour bars of equal width and equal gaps
Label everythingBoth axes labelled, plus a title
Check against the data16 + 10 + 8 + 6 = 40, matching the students surveyed.
Worked Example 2
Two villages have 1000 and 1100 people, with the axis drawn from 950 to 1150.
What the numbers say1100 ÷ 1000 = 1.1, so ten per cent larger
What the picture saysBar heights of 50 and 150, so the second LOOKS three times the first
Is it a lie?Every printed number is accurate, and the impression is still false.
The fixStart the axis at zero, and the bars differ by a tenth of their length.
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