From: Ralph (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Nov 23, 2007 at 21:51:43
Subject: Re: Plotting points on a graph

Dear Susan,

Thank you for writing to T2T. I'd certainly agree that "NEVER" is a pretty 
strong statement! Indeed, I think there's a famous quote, "Never say 
Never." :)  

If one is plotting points with the purpose of constructing a line graph, 
then indeed the points of the graph ARE connected.  The situations where a 
line graph might be deemed appropriate usually deal with continuous data, 
such as temperature or height. So, for example, if you were plotting the 
hourly temperatures through a given day, and connected the points to show a 
line graph, it would be perfectly appropriate (the assumption being that, 
for example, if the temperature went from 50 to 55, that it would pass 
through the other temperatures on the way.) If the data is considered
discrete (e.g. number of people), then the points wouldn't usually be
connected, as there wouldn't be 14 1/3 people, etc. :)

Hope this helps,

 -Ralph, for the T2T service

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