over time. Line graphs are widely used in economics to present continuous data about prices, wages, quantities

bought and sold, the size of the economy.

How Graphs Can Be Misleading

Graphs not only reveal patterns; they can also alter how patterns are perceived. To see some of the ways this

can be done, consider the line graphs of Figure A9, Figure A10, and Figure A11. These graphs all illustrate the

unemployment rate—but from different perspectives.

FIGURE A9

Access for free at openstax.org
A • The Use of Mathematics in Principles of Economics 515

FIGURE A10 Presenting Unemployment Rates in Different Ways, All of Them Accurate Simply changing the width

and height of the area in which data is displayed can alter the perception of the data.
516 A • The Use of Mathematics in Principles of Economics

FIGURE A11 Presenting Unemployment Rates in Different Ways, All of Them Accurate Simply changing the width
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