graphing
Post on 30-Dec-2015
17 Views
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Graphing
Why is graphing important?
Pictures are easier than complicated math!
They are useful for analyzing relationships.
Axes
What is the x axis for?
Independent Variable
Dependant Variable
What is the y axis for?
Independent Variable
Definition: Variable that is the cause of change in the system.
Think of the letter x. It has 2 legs, it stands on its own!
Very often our independent variable will be time.
Dependent Variable
Definition: the variable that shows the effect of the changes in the experiment.
Think of the letter y. It only has one leg so it needs to depend on others to hold itself up.
Label Axes
10 1
20 2
30 3
40 4
Dist (m) Time (s)
time(s)
distance(m)
Title
time(s)
distance(m)
Always title it y vs. xLeft side of your graph to right side, just like you read
Distance vs. Time
Scaling
WARNING!!! Graph breaking is absolutely not allowed!
time(s)
distance(m)
Distance vs. Time
ScalingChoose an appropriate scale for each axis.Never skip different amounts of numbers within an axis!
Ex:Don’t
0 5 10 20 50
Do
0 5 10 15 20
Line of best fit
time(s)
distance(m)
Distance vs. Time
. .
. .
.
It is a straight line that does not need to pass through all of your plotted points.
Slope
To find the slope of a line choose two different points along your best fit line
Remember: (x,y)
Write the coordinate of both of the points you chose.
1st Coordinate(x1, y1)
2nd Coordinate(x2, y2)
Slope
Slope = Rise over Run
Slope = y2 - y1
x2 - x1
=∆y
∆x∆ = delta = “change in”
So for our graph from before, since the y axis had distance and the x axis had time, y/x is the same as distance divided by time or: m/s
top related