A graph is sometimes also called a plot.

Unfortunately, the word "graph" is uniformly used by mathematicians to mean a collection of vertices and edges connecting them. In some education circles, the term "vertex-edge graph" is used in an attempt to distinguish the two types of graph. However, as Gardner (1984, p. 91) notes, "The confusion of this term with the 'graphs' of analytic geometry is regrettable, but the term has stuck [in the mathematical community]." In this work, the term "graph" will therefore be used to refer to a collection of vertices and edges, while a graph in the sense of a plot of a function will be called a "function graph" when any ambiguity arises. Types of Graph A pie graph is a circle divided into sections which each display the size of a relative piece of information. Each section of the graph comes together to form a whole. In a pie graph, the length of each sector is proportional to the percentage it represents. Pie graphs work particularly well when each .slice. of the pie represents 25 to 50 percent of the given data. The bar graph is a common type of graph which consists of parallel bars or rectangles with lengths that are equal to the quantities that occur in a given data set. The bars can be presented vertically or horizontally to show the contrast and record information. Bar graphs are used for plotting discontinuous (discrete) data. Discrete data contains discrete values and are not continuous. A line graph displays information in a series of data points that each represents an individual measurement or piece of data. The series of points are then connected by a line to show a visual trend in data over a period of time. The line is connected through each piece chronologically. An area graph is based on a line chart and displays quantitive data in the form of a graph. The area between the line and the axis is typically separated with textures or colors. Each area segment of an area graph is stacked on each other so that the total area of each category reflects the data. Each series of data is presented by a colored segment. XY graphs are typically used to plot and display data pairs which consist of two separate values, the X-value and the Yvalue. Each data pair represents information from given data and displayed as a symbol. The values are combined into single points and displayed in uneven clusters or intervals. Charts are often used to ease understanding of large quantities of data and the relationships between parts of the data. Charts can usually be read more quickly than the raw data that they are produced from. They are used in a wide variety of fields, and can be created by hand (often on graph paper) or by computer using a charting application. Certain types of charts are more useful for presenting a given data set than others. For example, data that presents percentages in different groups (such as "satisfied, not satisfied, unsure") are often displayed in a pie chart, but may be more easily understood when presented in a horizontal bar chart. On the other hand, data that represents numbers that change over a period of time (such as "annual revenue from 1990 to 2000") might be best shown as a line chart. Types of Charts A histogram consists of tabular frequencies, shown as adjacent rectangles, erected over discrete intervals (bins), with an area equal to the frequency of the observations in the interval. A bar chart is a chart with rectangular bars with lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A pie chart shows percentage values as a slice of a pie. A line chart is a two-dimensional scatterplot of ordered observations where the observations are connected following their order. I NTERPRETS OF CHARTS, GRAPHS, DIAGRAPHS Graphs and charts are visual representations of data in the form of points, lines, bars, and pie charts. Using graphs or charts, you can display values you measure in an experiment, sales data, or how your electrical use changes over time. Types of graphs and charts include line graphs, bar graphs, and circle charts. Different types of graphs and charts display data in different ways, and some are better suited than others for different uses. To interpret a graph or chart, read the title, look at the key, read the labels. Then study the graph to understand what it shows.