SemilogarithmicGraphs

Theuseofsemilogarithmic(semilog)graphpaperisanimportanttoolingraphing
scientificdatathatextendsoverawiderangeofvalues.Semiloggraphpaperprovides
therangeneededtographdatapointsonasinglesheetofpaperbycompressingthescale
forlargenumbersandexpandingthescaleforverysmallnumbers.Thisisdoneby
choosingalogarithmicscaleforoneaxis(usuallytheyaxis)whileleavingtheotheraxis
(usuallythexaxis)inthelinearformat.Semilogpapercomeswithdifferentnumbersof
cycles,andthespanofthedatawilldeterminewhatsizeisneeded.Threecyclesemi
logarithmicpaperhasbeenchosenforthisexample.Asetofdata(Table1)isgraphedon
linearpaperandproducesacurve(Figure3).Thesamesetofdata,graphedonsemilog
paper,producesastraightline(Figure4).Whenextrapolationfromagraphisnecessary,
astraightlineisneeded.
Asemilogarithmicgraphshouldbewellorganized,neat,andaccurate.Specific
instructionsforcreatingsuchagraphfollow.
Useanentire8.5"x11"pieceofpaperforthegraph.Thismeansthatthegraph
willneedtobeexpandedtofillthepage.Semilogarithmicpapershouldbeused
forasemiloggraph.
Thetitleofthegraphshouldbeplacedatthetopofthepage.Intheupperright
cornershouldbeyournameandotherpertinentinformationabouttheassignment.
Example:

"NumberofSurvivorsasaFunctionofUVExposure"
JoanStudent,MCB151,SectionC
Experiment2:pBR322gelelectrophoresis
DateofAssignment

Theoriginofaxesisdeterminedforyouonthesemilogpaper.Theoriginiswhere
thexandyaxesmeet.
Thetwoaxeshavebeendrawnforyou.Itiscustomarytomaketheyaxis
approximately1and1/2timesaslongasthexaxis.Thexaxisisthehorizontal
axisandtheyaxisistheverticalaxis.Thexaxisisoftencalledtheabscissa,and
theyaxisiscalledtheordinate.Theindependentvariableshouldbeplacedonthex
axisandthedependentvariableshouldbeplacedontheordinate.
Dividethexaxisatregularintervalsusingasmuchoftheaxisaspossible.Number
thedivisionmarksclearly.

Theyaxishasbeendividedintocycles.Acycleisaseriesofnonuniformly
spacedlineswhichareoftennumberedwiththesingledigits19(foreachcycle).
With3cyclesemilogpaperyouwillnoticethatthenumericallabelsontheyaxis
arebasedonmultiplesof10andthelinespacingsequencerepeatsitself3times.
Whenlabelingtheyaxis,eachcycleshouldincreasebythenumberthecycle
startedwith.Forexample,ifyoudecidedtobeginthefirstcyclewith1you
wouldntneedtochangethelabeling,thenextnumberwouldbe2,then3,then4,
etc.untilyougotto10.Since10startsthesecondcycle,eachpreprintednumber
willneedtohavea0addedtoitsothateachdivisionincreasesby10;the2
becomes20,the3becomes30,andsoforthuntilyoureach100.Now,since100
beginsthethirdcycleeachpreprintednumberwillneedtohavetwozerosaddedto
itsothateachdivisionwillincreaseby100.Youmayfindthatthefirstcycleneeds
tobeginwithanumberthatishigherorlowerthan1dependingonyourrangeof
numbers.Justmakesureyouwriteintheappropriateamountofzerosateachcycle
sothatyourscaleisclearlyrepresented.Theuseofalogarithmicyaxisis
commonlypreferredovergraphingthelogoftheycomponentoftheorderedpair
andthexcomponentonlineargraphpaper.
Labeleachaxisandalwaysincludeunitsifapplicable.
Alldatapointsmustbeshownonthegraph.Whenmorethanonesetofordered
pairsisplottedonthesamegraph,usedifferenttypesoflines(e.g.solid,dashed,
dotted)orusedifferentshapesforthedatapoints(e.g.dots,squares,triangles).
Figure3showsalinedrawnby"connectingthedots."Thedatapointsarenotina
straightlineinthisinstance,soitisbettertofitacurvetothedata.Figure4isby
itsnatureastraightline.Themostfrequentpurposeofasemilogarithmicgraphis
togeneratealinearrelationshipfromwhichdatacanbeextrapolated.

Samplesheetsofsemilogpapercanbefoundattheendofyourlabmanual.Remember
tomakecopiesofthesesheetssothattheycanbeusedmorethanonce.

TimeofUVExposure
(seconds)

NumberofColonies
permilliliter(phr)

0
2
4
6
8
10

8600
2600
790
240
70
20

Table1.ThistablecontainstheexamplesetofdatausedforFigures3and4.

Linear Graph of Survivors as a Function of UV

Exposure
3000

2600
2500

2000

1500

1000

790

500

240

70

20

0
2

Timeof UV Exposure(seconds)

Figure3.Thisfigureshowsasamplelineargraphwithaconnectthedotscurve.

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SemilogarithmicGraphofSurvivorsasaFunctionofUVExposure

10000

NumberofColoniespermL

2600

1000

790

240

100

70

20

10

TimeofUVExposure
(seconds)

Figure4.Thisfigureshowsabasicsemilogarithmicgraph.

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