The horizontal axis of a line chart only shows evenly spaced groupings (categories) of data. This is because a line chart only has one value axis (the vertical axis). In a line chart, however, the same daily rainfall and particulate values are displayed as two separate data points, which are evenly distributed along the horizontal axis. These numbers represent the values in cell A9 and B9 on the worksheet. The first data point to appear in the scatter chart represents both a y value of 137 (particulate) and an x value of 1.9 (daily rainfall). These data points may be distributed evenly or unevenly across the horizontal axis, depending on the data.

The chart displays points at the intersection of an x and y numerical value, combining these values into single data points. Often referred to as an xy chart, a scatter chart never displays categories on the horizontal axis.Ī scatter chart always has two value axes to show one set of numerical data along a horizontal (value) axis and another set of numerical values along a vertical (value) axis. In a scatter chart, the daily rainfall values from column A are displayed as x values on the horizontal (x) axis, and the particulate values from column B are displayed as values on the vertical (y) axis. For example, when you use the following worksheet data to create a scatter chart and a line chart, you can see that the data is distributed differently. The main difference between scatter and line charts is the way they plot data on the horizontal axis.

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