1. Chapter One, Section 5: Graphs in Science
What type of data can line graphs display?
How do you determine a line of best fit or the slope of a graph?
Why are line graphs powerful tools in science?

2. Why use Graphs?
Because of their visual nature, graphs can reveal patterns or trends that words and data tables cannot.
Scientists commonly use bar graphs, circle graphs, and line graphs.

3. The Importance of Graphs
Line graphs are used to display data to show how one variable changes in response to another variable. In this experiment, the responding variable is the time it takes for the water to boil. The manipulated variable is the volume of water in the pot.

4. Draw the axes. Label the axes. Create a scale. Plot the data.
Open your textbooks to page 37, and let’s look at the 6 steps of plotting a line graph.
Draw the axes.
Label the axes.
Create a scale.
Plot the data.
Draw a line of best fit.
Add a title.
(horizontal axis = x-axis = independent variable, vertical axis = y-axis = dependent variable)
(focus on general pattern, not connecting dots)
(include both independent and dependent variables)

5. Why Draw a Line of Best Fit?
A line of best fit emphasizes the overall trend shown by all the data taken as a whole.

6. Using Graphs to Identify Trends
Line graphs are powerful tools in science because they allow you to identify trends and make predictions.
This graph’s data forms a straight line, so it is linear.

7. Using Graphs to Identify Trends
Not all line graphs will have data that fall on a straight line.
This graph is nonlinear.

8. Here are some more nonlinear graphs:

9. No trend
Even nonlinear graphs with no recognizable pattern provides useful information to scientists….
It most likely means that there is no relationship between the two variables.