The students in Mr. Tyson’s high school statistics class were recently asked if they would prefer a pasta party, a pizza party, or a donut party. The following bar graph displays the data.

This graph is misleading because

a. it should be a histogram, not a bar graph.

b. there should not be gaps between the bars.

c. the bars should be arranged in decreasing order by height.

d. the vertical axis scale should start at 0.

e. preferred party should be on the vertical axis and number of students should be on the horizontal axis.

a. it should be a histogram, not a bar graph.

b. there should not be gaps between the bars.

c. the bars should be arranged in decreasing order by height.

d. the vertical axis scale should start at 0.

e. preferred party should be on the vertical axis and number of students should be on the horizontal axis.

The graph is deceptive because the bars in the bar graph begin at 4 rather than 0.

As a result, the differences between the various categories are exaggerated. For example, we can see that the Pizza bar is roughly three times higher than the Donut bar, implying that the number of students who prefer pizza is roughly three times higher than the number of students who prefer donuts. However, 5 students prefer donuts and 7 students prefer pizzas, despite the fact that 7 is not three times greater than 5.

As a result:

d. the vertical axis scale should start at 0.