Reading a Graph Qualitatively Worksheets

Sample problems

1. A graph of water in a bath rises, is flat, then falls to zero. Describe what happened.
2. On a distance-time graph, what does a steeper section mean?
3. A graph increases the whole way but gets less steep. Is it increasing or decreasing?
4. Sketch: “falls steadily, then stays constant.”

Common mistakes to watch for

• Described a landscape — up a hill, along the flat, up another hill. That is reading the graph as a picture of the route, which is a coherent misreading and the target of this whole skill.
• Agreed with him, or said “flat means stopped” without explaining. The reason has to come from the AXES, because that is the move that transfers to every other graph.
• Answered “decreasing” because the increases shrink. This is the second core confusion: the rate is falling while the value is rising, and only the value decides increasing or decreasing.

The answer key explains each one, so you can tell what a wrong answer means.