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Line graphs

Take a look at this graph, what information is it telling us?

Line graph showing the temperature on 1st September
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Horizontal axis

The horizontal axis is the bottom axis and moves from left to right.

This horizontal axis in this example is labelled Time and the time increases as we move along the line.

A graph showing the temperature on 1st September with an arrow showing the time increasing on the horizontal axis.
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Vertical axis

*What information is the vertical axis telling us?

This axis is labelled **Temperature in 掳C.

It starts at 0, meaning 0掳C.

The next label is 2 so we know that the scale goes up in steps of 2掳C.

The label is counting in 2s but that doesn鈥檛 mean that 7掳C or 9掳C isn鈥檛 on there.

The odd numbers like 7掳C or 9掳C can still be measured on graph they just aren't labelled.

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Reading a line graph

Example 1

What was the temperature at 10am?

  1. First slide along the horizontal axis to find 10am.
  2. Travel straight up from 10am until you meet the line.
A line graph showing the temperature across the day on 1st September with a line from 10am.
  1. We are reading the temperature so we start from where we meet the line and travel across until we meet the vertical axis.

  2. Now we can read the vertical axis to see that the temperature at 10am was 4掳颁.

Line graph with a line from 10am to 4 degrees.
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Example 2

When was the temperature 16掳C?

This time we know the temperature but not the time.

Graph with a line from 16 degrees to 4pm.
  • First we slide up the vertical axis to 16掳C and travel across to meet the line.
  • Then we travel straight down to reach the horizontal axis which reads 4pm.

It was 16掳C at 4pm.

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Example 3

Take a look at the graph again.

When was it 10掳C?

Line graph showing the temperature on 1st September

It was 10掳C at 1pm.

Did you notice another time of the day when the temperature was 10掳C?

Keep travelling across the line once you've reached 1pm and you will see that it was also 10掳C at 2.30pm.

This means there are two times when the temperature was 10掳C.

Top tip!

It is important to include a title when drawing a graph as this provides us with more information about what the graph is showing.

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Quiz 1

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Quiz 2

In this quiz you will solve some problems using information you have taken from a line graph.

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More on Tables, graphs and charts

Find out more by working through a topic