Why do we study graphs and diagrams?

Answer 1

Graphs and other visual aids may suggest certain trends and relationships. I will use the word "plot" to cover all visual aids. A very common plot is the time plot, where we can observe changes in a variable over a period of time, such as birth rates, personal incomes or number of cars bought. Two or more variable can be plotted on the same plot, for instance the oil prices, gold, copper and silver over time is an interesting plot showing the effects of economic growth. We can plot one variable on the x axis and one on the y axis, to see the relationship between the two. For example, on the x-axis we may have people's income and on the y-axis, the level of education. Plots should be informative and lead to more evaluation of data. But there also misleading graphs. If I want to show that I am a good investor, perhaps I show only a period where my investments have gone up. Behind every plot, there should be data that can be verified. By studying descriptive statistics, which covers ways of visualizing data, we can better identify meaningful plots from deceptive ones.