Do x-axis have to be on the same range as y-axis?

Question

for instance if I plot 1, 2, 3 on the x axis do I have to plot the same on the y axis or can I plot for the same distance say 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3?

Thanks

Answer 1

No. The two scales are totally independant. You can have a linear scale for both axes (lin-lin scaling), logarithmic scales on both axes (log-log scaling), or a linear scale for one axis and a logarithmic scale for the other (lin-log scaling), and any scaling factor which suits the range of the functions to be plotted, using whichever units are suitable...inches, feet miles, Km, pounds ounzes, pounds per square inch, whatever you like that suits the graph for each axis.

For example the curvature of the Earth involves a large distance on one axis for a small change on the other and you may wish to plot distances in miles and the drop of the horizon in inches or feet, using lin-log scaling, since after a while the distance dropped on the y axis exceeds the distance along the x axis, though to start with the y values are very small compared to the x values.

If a whole quadrant of the Earth is to be graphed the scales will be the same on each axis.

The range over which the function is to be shown can affect the scaling to provide a useful graph.

Only if the function varies by about the same amount on the x and y axis are the scales normally the same on both.

If a small change in x means a large change in y then the y scale will be greatly different from the x scale in order to graph a useful range of values otherwise only a small part of the x scale is used before the line goes off the graph on the y axis.

The units used should suit the function to be graphed, so a trial calculation using extreme values and a couple in between will show the values of useful scales to use for each axis. eg 1-100 on the x axis and -100 to +10 000 on the y axis, or whatever suits.

Correct scaling of a graph is one of the important things to consider, so assessing the kind of scale necessary on each axis by doing a few trial calculations is an important step before constructing the graph.

http://id.mind.net/~zona/mmts/graphPaper/scalingGraphPaper/scalingGraphPaper.html . .

You can have more than one scale for each axis, a technique called dual scaling or multi-scaling. Financial and economic graphs are often scaled that way, with the y axis having one scale on the left side of the paper and another on the right side.

Scroll down here to see a line graph,some bar graphs and some more line graphs further down, using dual scaling.

http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/dual-scaled_axes.pdf . . . .

Answer 2

In y = a million, the line is horizontal and parallel to the x-axis, so the slope is 0. undergo in suggestions slope-intercept type is y = mx + b, the place m is the slope and b is the y-intercept. In y = a million/2x, there's no y-intercept, so the line intersects the beginning place at element (0, 0).

Answer 3

nope they dont need to be the same for points or range

Answer 4

The increments can be different. it doesn't matter.