text: what is misleading graphs?   use of statistics to imply a different result.  e.g. if my business' share value was:   1997: $200 1998: $150 1999: $100 2000: $101 2001: $102  and i put those three years on a graph with y axis being "value, 0-300", it would look like hell.  nobody would buy my stock.  otph if i used a y-axis of "100-105" and only showed the last 3 years, it would be a nice steep slope.  the most common trick is to flip percentages and values for your own benefit.  e.g. if you're doing 30.1 in a 20 mile per hour zone, you are:  1) exceeding the speed limit by 10.1 mph (doesn't sound bad...)  2) exceeding the speed limit by more than fifty percent (oops, that sounds worse).  3) more than doubling your kinetic energy (sounds even worse)  and so on...