Doing some biology work and need to plot a graph "distance from plant(cm)" vs "number of bubbles produced". It's actually an investigation into how light intensity affects the rate of photosynthesis and we are just changing how far away a lamp is from an Elodea plant and then we count the number of oxygen bubbles produced. Number of bubbles produced is discrete, so I would assume that it would be a bar chart, however to me it seems like a line graph would be more appropriate. So which graph would I use and why?
-
It would be a line graph - but I can see why you'd think it would be a bar chart instead!
I'll do my best to explain... yes, although 'number of bubbles' is discrete, this is your dependent variable so it goes on the y axis.
The independent variable 'distance from plant' is a continuous variable, and goes on the x axis. What really matters in graph-drawing is what type of variable is it on the x axis, because the y axis just depends on the x.
Hope that helps, and wasn't too confusing! :)
I'll do my best to explain... yes, although 'number of bubbles' is discrete, this is your dependent variable so it goes on the y axis.
The independent variable 'distance from plant' is a continuous variable, and goes on the x axis. What really matters in graph-drawing is what type of variable is it on the x axis, because the y axis just depends on the x.
Hope that helps, and wasn't too confusing! :)
-
Use a line graph - since you are not using discrete categories.