Transcript: The Power of the Whole Picture

MS. FILESHARE: But I'm much too busy to go look at any more graphs.

JACKIE: No problem, Ms. Fileshare, we're bringing them to you!

MATT: Pointing fingers without knowing all the facts was wrong, Ms. Fileshare.

MATT: The Vermin Vexer did use the same numbers for his bar graph that we did. But there's more. Look.

MATT: Both graphs have number scales now – they didn't before.

MS. FILESHARE: Hmmm, fourteen on yours... and one hundred five on his?!

INEZ: Yep. The Vermin Vexer used really big numbers on his scale so the data bars would look tiny.

JACKIE: And tiny bars make it look like there's only a few bugs in all the sections. Jackie gestures to their graph.

JACKIE: We chose a scale with smaller numbers so the bars would be bigger and easier to understand.

MATT: But large or small, Ms. Fileshare, fourteen bugs is fourteen bugs!

MID-SHOT: Ms. Fileshare is convinced.

MS. FILESHARE: Well, flip my files!

INEZ: There's more. Watch!

HACKER/VERMIN VEXER: Look at these. You can clearly tell I got rid of a lot more bugs than he did last year.

MS. FILESHARE: Wait! Those graphs aren't a fair comparison!

MATT: Add scales to them, and look what you see...

MS. FILESHARE: The other guy caught waaay more bugs than the Vermin Vexer!

MS. FILESHARE: He deliberately left off the scales to make it look like he was better. I've been bamboozled!

INEZ: We made the same mistake...until we found out the sizes of the bars on a graph don't tell the whole story.

MATT: The power is in the whole picture! You have to think about the numbers and the scale, too.

INEZ: Then you can figure out what the graph is really saying.