Drawing graphs
To draw a good graph in Excel needs some skills. It is not dificult but some training is needed. Make sure that your graphs, especially scatterplots, have a line of best fit, or trendline.
A line of best fit, or trendline is a straight or curved line in a trend chart that indicates the general pattern or direction of a series of data. They can be:
- Linear
If the plotted data points follow a straight or nearly straight line, then a linear type of trend line best fits them.
- Logarithmic
If the plotted data increases or decreases steeply and then begins to level out, the logarithmic trend line tends to work best.
- Exponential
An exponential trend line turns more sharply on one end than the other, so the growth is every time faster or slower. The direction can be either up or down.
A line of best fit, or trendline is a straight or curved line in a trend chart that indicates the general pattern or direction of a series of data. They can be:
- Linear
If the plotted data points follow a straight or nearly straight line, then a linear type of trend line best fits them.
- Logarithmic
If the plotted data increases or decreases steeply and then begins to level out, the logarithmic trend line tends to work best.
- Exponential
An exponential trend line turns more sharply on one end than the other, so the growth is every time faster or slower. The direction can be either up or down.
Revise your knowledge with this excercise
Before moving your mouse over the circles on each graph, try to figure out the relation you see between the two variables.
