One clear illustration of this is Anscombe's quartet. Created in 1973, the quartet is four sets of data with identical statistical properties but wildly different visualizations.
Each of the images at the right is from a set of such numbers and below it, a mathematical description. In English, their basic statistical
measures and averages are the same but the shape of the data isn't. Just like the average size of two 6-foot people is 6-foot, so is the average height of two men, one being 3 feet tall and other being 9.
For much more, immerse yourself in the work of Ed Tufte. His first and possibly most famous book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, remains a bible of data visualization and informational graphic design illustrating this example and countless others.


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