How to plot your graph. A distance/time graph shows time on one axis (x) and distance on the other axis (y). It is important to plot the important information from the problem.

For the horizontal axis, we will plot t 2 instead of just time since the distance should be proportional to time squared. Notice that a linear function does indeed fit this data quite nicely.

But ignoring that special lab, the best way to build or verify a model is with a graph. Let’s look at the constant velocity cart again. Say that the cart starts at time t = t 0 and position x = x 0.

Playfair explained his approach using a graph that showed the expenditure of the Royal Navy over the preceding decades. Time is on the horizontal x-axis, money is on the vertical y-axis; the line ...