Which graph is most suitable to show daily temperature changes over a week?

Which graph is most suitable to show daily temperature changes over a week?

• A. Bar chart
• B. Pie chart
• C. Scatter plot
• D. Line graph

Answer: (D)

When showing how a value changes over time, a line graph is the most natural choice because it highlights continuity and trends. For daily temperatures over a week, plotting each day on the horizontal axis and temperature on the vertical axis, then connecting the points with a line, makes increases, decreases, and overall patterns easy to see at a glance. The line reveals how quickly temperatures rise or fall from day to day and helps identify peaks and troughs. A bar chart can show each day’s temperature, but the bars don’t emphasize the day-to-day progression as clearly and can obscure the overall trend. A pie chart focuses on parts of a whole and isn’t meant for time order. A scatter plot shows relationships between two variables and isn’t the best way to display a sequence over time, unless you do extra steps to imply order, which still isn’t as effective for this purpose. So, the line graph best communicates how temperatures change across the week.

When showing how a value changes over time, a line graph is the most natural choice because it highlights continuity and trends. For daily temperatures over a week, plotting each day on the horizontal axis and temperature on the vertical axis, then connecting the points with a line, makes increases, decreases, and overall patterns easy to see at a glance. The line reveals how quickly temperatures rise or fall from day to day and helps identify peaks and troughs.

A bar chart can show each day’s temperature, but the bars don’t emphasize the day-to-day progression as clearly and can obscure the overall trend. A pie chart focuses on parts of a whole and isn’t meant for time order. A scatter plot shows relationships between two variables and isn’t the best way to display a sequence over time, unless you do extra steps to imply order, which still isn’t as effective for this purpose.

So, the line graph best communicates how temperatures change across the week.