GRAPHINGTips for creating a line graph

THE NOTES ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT:Mrs. McPhillips wanted to see how the temperature of the classroom changed during the day. She took the temperature of the classroom every 30 minutes.

1. DRAW YOUR X AXIS AND Y AXIS (LABEL ‘X’ AND ‘Y’)

y

x

WHAT IS THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE FOR THIS EXPERIMENT? The independent variable is the variable

that the experimenter sets up before the experiment begins.

For this experiment it is = Time (hr). It is on the x-axis.

y

x

2. PLACE THE CATEGORY BEING STUDIED ON THE X-AXIS. THIS IS YOUR INDEPENDENT VARIABLE.

Time (hr) Independent variable

WHAT IS THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE FOR THIS EXPERIMENT? The dependent variable is the results or

the measurements of your experiment. It is Temperature (◦C). It goes on the y –axis.

y

x

3. PLACE THE MEASUREMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE ON THE Y-AXIS. THIS IS THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE.

Time (hr)

Dependent variable

Tem

pera

ture

( ◦

C)

DATA FOR THIS EXPERIMENT:Time (hr) Temperature (◦C)

0 20

0.5 21

1 22

1.5 22.5

2 23

2.5 23

3 23.5

3.5 24.2

4 24

4.5 24.5

5 24.5

5.5 25

6 26

4. DETERMINE THE SCALE OF EACH AXIS.

You can do a guess and check to find the scale or use the following formula:

Scale ≥ (highest data #) / (# of boxes on your axis)

X-AXIS:

Time (hr)

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

Scale ≥ Highest # # boxes

Scale ≥ 6 12

Scale ≥ 0.5

I will count by 0.5

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time (hr)

Y-AXIS:

Scale ≥ Highest # # boxes

Scale ≥ 26 17

Scale ≥ 1.529

I will count by 2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time (hr)

Temp (◦C)

20

21

22

22.5

23

23

23.5

24.2

24

24.5

24.5

25

26

0

10

2

0

30

Tem

pera

ture

( ◦

C)

5. LABEL ORIGIN (0,0)

6. PLOT POINTS

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time (hr)

0

10

2

0

30

(x , y)(0, 20)

Tem

pera

ture

( ◦

C)

7. CONNECT POINTS OR DRAW LINE OF BEST FIT

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time (hr)

0

10

2

0

30

(0, 20)

Tem

pera

ture

( ◦

C)

8. TITLE YOUR GRAPH

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time (hr)

0

10

2

0

30

(0, 20)

Room 176’s Temperature during the school day

Tem

pera

ture

( ◦

C)

LINE GRAPH 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Day

0

5

1

0

30

Rate of Plant Growth

Heig

ht

( cm

)