Talk:Semi-log plot

Putting this thing together
Someone (maybe me :-)) should take a look at the relationship between the log-log graph and power law sections. They got it goin' on man (or woman).  So, of course, I think that semilog graphs should have the same wiki-relationship with exponential functions. Kevglynn 17:06, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Inconsistency?
The sentence that begins "All the functions of the form" seems to contradict the illustrations. For example, the function y = x is of the form specified if one takes lambda to be 0 and gamma to be -1, and yet this is _not_ a straight line in either the log-lin or lin-log illustrations of semi-log (see the green curves, which are said to represent y = x ). 68.111.252.29 21:37, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Log-log graph which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RM bot 21:46, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Simplified Version
Page fits well with concept of Wiki Mathematics Project idea but I'm wondering if there should be a simplified version of these statistical pages - plain 'English' so to speak. Maybe a 'click here' for Dummies version. FridayFields (talk) 02:47, 17 April 2015 (UTC)


 * A long time after the fact, but, I'm sure Simple English Wikipedia would welcome such a thing. -- Perey (talk) 04:01, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

Irrelevant information in intro
The introduction includes the sentence, "The quote “logarithmic plots are a device of the devil” is attributed to the seismologist Charles Richter."

What, what is this doing here. It's irrelevant and the tone isn't constructive. Raywin42 (talk) 06:12, 23 July 2018 (UTC)


 * I have removed it Raywin42 (talk) 06:22, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

Why plot in logarithmic axis
Hi, maybe this page for include something about why we plot on an exponential axis in the first place. One reason is that it is easier to see trends when the graph is a straight line, and then see when something about the rate changes. I tried to say something like this in the caption for the sars graphic, but maybe this is a general point that could be made in the introduction. I didn't want to attempt to do so myself as I'm not a mathematician, Howard.noble323 (talk) 08:52, 23 April 2020 (UTC)


 * I agree. The "why" is much better explained here at intermath.com The idea for using semilog graph axes, is so one can more easily make visual hardly noticeable changes in y, for small changes at the beginning values of x and show more clearly if one has to do with an exponential growth rather than a linear growth, and not be surprised to see a spike a couple of hours or days later e.g. in the growth of a pest. This is for example very useful in the growth of bacteria and molecules to stop their growth.  In the beginning, the bacteria may multiply slowly, yet exponentially - though one may not notice it and conclude that it is a straight line, until you come back 12h later and see everything is infested and you can throw away you experiment.   If however you find a way to reduce that exponential speed by for example lowering the temperature, you may find additional interesting ways to kill those bacteria in their first hours with some drug. Cheers, SvenAERTS (talk) 13:54, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Green color too dark (original graphs are better)
The graphs should have kept the light green/lime color, and not darken the green. It is much harder to see with red/green color vision weakness, compared to the original graphs. Please restore as this matters for accessibility! 78.124.136.51 (talk) 12:33, 2 January 2024 (UTC)