hadley wickham wrote:
>> 
> I was interested to see that you have code for drawing scatterplots
> with multiple y-axes.  As far as I know the only legitimate use for a
> double-axis plot is to confuse or mislead the reader (and this is not
> a very ethical use case).  Perhaps you have a counter-example?
> 
> Hadley
> 
While it is true that the double-Y-axis graph is generally considered 
sinful, it can be used effectively to show the relation of two time 
series in ways that other graphs can't do as well.

For one striking example,
a political, presentation graphic, see:
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/images/commonsenserevolution6.pdf
described on my Graphical Excellence page,
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/excellence.html
I found it easy to excuse the sin by the 'wow effect' produced by the
graph.

Playfair also used double-Y-axis graphs for similar purposes; and, 
sinner that he was, graphic and otherwise, he was not adverse to 
jiggling the scales on one or the other axes to make his message
more apparent.  See:

@ARTICLE{FriendlyDenis:05:scat,
   author = {M. Friendly and D. Denis},
   title = {The early origins and development of the scatterplot},
   journal = {Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences},
   year = {2005},
   volume = {41},
   pages = {103--130},
   number = {2},
   url = {http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Papers/friendly-scat.pdf}
}



-- 
Michael Friendly     Email: friendly AT yorku DOT ca
Professor, Psychology Dept.
York University      Voice: 416 736-5115 x66249 Fax: 416 736-5814
4700 Keele Street    http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/friendly.html
Toronto, ONT  M3J 1P3 CANADA

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