Internet Doctors: Graph The accompanying graph was created to depict the results of the survey described in Exercise 1. Is the graph somehow misleading? If so, how?

A bar chart is displayed showing the number of adults who said “yes” and “no” to a question in a survey.

In a bar graph, it is very important for the vertical scale to begin from 0.The lengths of the bar are drawn according to the numbers on the vertical scale. Moreover, the length of the bar represents the frequency of the corresponding category.

If the vertical scale does not begin from 0, the difference in the frequencies of the categories is greatly exaggerated.

Here, the vertical scale begins from 800 and not 0. This results in a false impression in the minds of the readers that there is a great difference in the number of adults who said “yes” and who said “no” when the actual difference is not that large.

Thus, the graph is misleading.