Idea 19of 22Builds on“Most” means more than half
Check where the scale starts
How can a bar graph make a small gap look huge?
Today you'll discover
- what happens when the scale starts above 0
- how to read the real gap
- when zooming in is fair
Think firstGarden beds and games, close up
Garden's bar looks 3 times as tall as games'. Did it get 3 times the votes?
Decide first, then press Next. Look at the lowest number up the side.
Two bars, garden beds 18 and outdoor games 16, on a side that runs from 15 to 19, under the headline Garden beds crush outdoor games! The garden bar looks three times as tall. Then the 15 at the bottom is ringed, and beside the graph the same two bars redrawn from 0 look almost equal. Then a bracket shows the real gap, 2. The last step shows birds at a feeder on a side starting at 30.
See the whole ideathe big idea and the key word, in one place
The big idea
Check where the scale starts: a scale above 0 makes small gaps look big.
Three checksWhere does the scale start? Can you read the real values? Do the words match the size of the gap?
Compare themFrom 15, garden beds look 3 times as tall as games. From 0, 18 and 16 look nearly equal. Same votes, two pictures.
Key word
- zoomed-in scale
- a scale that starts above 0, so the bars show only their tops and small gaps look bigger
Ready to use it?
- Read the real gap on a zoomed-in graph.
- Decide whether a headline fits a zoomed-in graph.