Plotting a line graph in Science

Drawing graphs Draw two pencil lines. Each line is called an axis. Don’t draw them too close to the edge of the paper. Label each line with the thing you are plotting. Mark the numbers on the horizontal line. Each step should go up by the same amount e.g. go up in 1s or 5s or 10s. Do the same on the vertical line. Mark the results as crosses (x). Use pencil to do this. Use a ruler and a pencil to join up the crosses BUT ONLY IF YOU WILL GET A STRAIGHT LINE.

5 y x y 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 x The dashed red lines show you how to find where to draw the “x”. Don’t draw them on your graph. These crosses can be joined up to make a straight line so we can use a ruler & a pencil to draw one on the graph

50 y x y 5 10 20 15 30 40 25 50 40 30 20 10 5 10 15 20 25 x

Measuring time Number of swings Time taken in seconds 1 2 4 3 6 8 5 10 A pendulum swing can be used to measure time. In this experiment, a pupil counted the number of pendulum swings and used a stopwatch to find out how long they took

1 2 4 3 6 8 5 10 Number of swings Time taken in seconds 10 1 2 4 3 6 8 5 10 10 Time taken in seconds 8 6 4 2 1 2 3 4 5 Number of swings

Stretching springs Increase the stretching force one newton at a time and measure the length of the spring. Plot a graph of spring length against stretching force.

4 1 6 2 8 3 10 12 Force in newtons Spring length in cm 12 10 4 1 6 2 8 3 10 12 12 10 Spring length in cm 8 6 4 2 1 2 3 4 Force in newtons

The rain gauge Measure the volume of water in the container and the depth of the liquid Volume of water in ml Depth of water in cm 50 1 100 2 150 3 200 4 250 5

Volume of water in ml Depth of water in cm 50 1 100 2 150 3 200 4 250 50 1 100 2 150 3 200 4 250 5 Depth of water in cm 4 3 2 1 50 100 150 200 250 Volume of water in ml