You already know how to put figures into a spreadsheet table. Today you will turn those figures into a chart. Then you will change the chart on purpose, so you can see how the same true numbers can be made to look dramatic. By the end you will have one honest chart, one misleading copy of it, and a short rule for reading charts you see online.
A chart is not just a plain picture of numbers. The person who made it chose the kind of chart, the title, the scale and where the vertical axis starts. The vertical axis is the line of numbers up the side of the chart, and the scale is how far apart those numbers are spaced. Those choices can make a small difference look huge, or a real difference look tiny, without changing a single figure.
You will type these figures into a spreadsheet in the next step.
- Messaging: 50 minutes
- Short video: 60 minutes
- Games: 45 minutes
- School apps: 40 minutes
- Music: 42 minutes
If two charts show the exact same numbers, how can one of them still mislead you?
The activity below has one list for Excel (Microsoft 365) and one for Google Sheets (Google Workspace). Pick the one for your app and follow only that list.
First, type the headings and the five demo rows into a new sheet, in cells A1 to B6, as the picture shows.
In the first part, you work out the total and the average, make a column chart with a title, and start the vertical axis at zero. The bars should be nearly the same height, because the numbers are close together. In the second part, you change the same chart so that its axis starts at 35.
When the axis moves, ask yourself whether any number changed.
Make an honest chart and a misleading copy from your own figures, then write one sentence naming the trick.
Both charts show the same numbers. On the left the axis starts at 0, so the bars are nearly the same height. On the right it starts at 35, so Short video looks five times taller than School apps, although it is only 20 minutes more.
- Type five rows into a new sheet, each with a category and a number, such as minutes on five apps or votes for lunch options.
- Build the honest chart as in the step-by-step activity, with a title, a labelled vertical axis and the axis starting at 0.
- Copy the chart. Click an empty part of the chart, not a bar or the title, and press Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V. In Excel, drag the copy beside the first one.
- On the copy only, set the vertical axis to start a little below your smallest number.
- Under the two charts, write one sentence naming the trick.
“The second chart starts its axis at 35, so a small gap looks like a huge lead.”
Use the demo figures. Set your chart from the step-by-step activity back to 0, copy it, set the copy's axis to 35 and write your sentence.
The misleading chart did not make up a single number. Instead it changed how the numbers were shown, by moving where the axis starts. Charts need the same check you give any source. Ask whether the facts are right, and also whether they are shown fairly.
Before you believe a chart you see online, check where the axis starts, the scale, and whether the title matches what the bars really show.
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