{"id":8670,"date":"2020-04-09T12:27:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T17:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/?p=8670"},"modified":"2020-04-09T12:41:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T17:41:44","slug":"graphs-log-scales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/2020\/graphs-log-scales","title":{"rendered":"More on Graphs &#8211; Use of Log Scales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two graphs of <strong>COVID19 data<\/strong> today illustrate an important data communication problem\u2026 the use of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"logarithmic scales (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Logarithmic_scale\" target=\"_blank\">logarithmic scales<\/a> (aka <strong>log scales<\/strong>). The <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Financial Times daily Coronavirus Tracker (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/coronavirus-latest\" target=\"_blank\">Financial Times<\/a><\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Financial Times daily Coronavirus Tracker (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/coronavirus-latest\" target=\"_blank\"> daily <\/a><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Financial Times daily Coronavirus Tracker (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/coronavirus-latest\" target=\"_blank\">Coronavirus Tracker<\/a><\/strong> is great, but the use of log scales in their graphs makes the <strong>visual difference<\/strong> between 10-20 the <em>same<\/em> as 1000-2000. <em>These graphs fail to communicate how bad things really are!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"366\" src=\"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-log-scale.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8671\" srcset=\"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-log-scale.png 600w, https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-log-scale-150x92.png 150w, https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-log-scale-400x244.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Compare with the @CAPAction presentation of the same data using a <strong>non-log vertical axis<\/strong> . The situation in the US looks <em>much worse<\/em> (and, oh by the way, it is!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"526\" height=\"523\" src=\"http:\/\/richard.rathe.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-non-log-scale.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-non-log-scale.png 526w, https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-non-log-scale-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-non-log-scale-251x250.png 251w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 526px) 85vw, 526px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given the level of numeracy of the average US citizen, I think we should <strong><em>avoid log scales in public discourse<\/em><\/strong> whenever possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two graphs of COVID19 data today illustrate an important data communication problem\u2026 the use of logarithmic scales (aka log scales). The Financial Times daily Coronavirus Tracker is great, but the use of log scales in their graphs makes the visual difference between 10-20 the same as 1000-2000. These graphs fail to communicate how bad things &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/2020\/graphs-log-scales\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;More on Graphs &#8211; Use of Log Scales&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,22,28],"tags":[468,469,467,476],"class_list":["post-8670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-medicine","category-science","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid19","tag-pandemic","tag-statistics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8670"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8679,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670\/revisions\/8679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmangrove.org\/rathe.org\/richard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}