A bar graph compares the size of the armed forces for China, North Korea, Russia, and the United States. To make the graph look nicer, the artist replaces each bar by a proportionally correct picture of a soldier that is enlarged or reduced to be as tall as the bar. This graph is misleading because
A) it's the wrong kind of graph. Use a pie chart instead.
B) it's the wrong kind of graph. Use a scatterplot instead.
C) China's armed forces are twice as large as those of North Korea, but the choice of vertical scale can change this to half as large or four times as large.
D) China's armed forces are twice as large as those of North Korea, but the area of China's soldier picture is four times as large as the North Korea picture.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When the height of an image is doubled, the area increases by a factor of four (since area is proportional to the square of the height), making the representation misleading by exaggerating the difference between the sizes of the armed forces.

A Bar Graph Compares the Size of the Armed Forces