Introducing Graphs (1963)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh Oh the bell in the fountain bills is ringing to announce that the town has a new manager its mr. smiles who has a very large smile because he is happy about his new job as soon as mr. smiles gets to work he finds a letter on his desk from a man who wants to move to Pleasantville he wants to know how many houses are for sale and what kinds of houses they are and he doesn't want to read through a long list of figures if mr. smiles doesn't give him a quick clear answer he might move somewhere else mr. smile starts thinking and then just like that his smile comes back he'll answer the questions without a long list of figures mr. smiles draws for small symbols so that each picture symbol represents some fact about the houses in Pleasantville with these four kinds of pictures mr. smiles can show how many one-story houses are in Pleasantville how many of these are for sale and the same for two-story houses how many there are how many offer sales there are 500 one-story houses and 100 of these are for sale out of 800 two-story houses 200 are for sale this simple picture dress shows at a glance many things about these houses in Pleasantville when mr. newcomer the man who was thinking of buying a house got the grass it told him just what he wanted to know he decided to drive to Pleasantville to look for a house to buy he wanted some information about house prices so he dropped in on mr. smiles mr. newcomer saw several houses he liked on Maple Street but first could mr. smiles give him some information about how much the houses cost mr. smiles was ready to answer that question right away maple street starts near the center of town and runs to the city limits along the whole street there are seven houses for sale by drawing lines of different lengths for the price of each house mr. smile shows which houses cost more or less than others the upright lines all begin at a horizontal line representing $0 the upright lines indicate houses for sale on Maple Street to show the actual cost of each house in thousands of dollars lines for 10,000 20,000 30,000 and 40,000 dollar groups the lines make it easier to see what the price of each house is now it's easy to see at a glance the price of each house house a on Maple Street costs about $25,000 Osby got about 15,000 and houses C and B cost about the same around 30,000 each the same kinds of pictures can be seen in the lines representing the prices of the other houses for sale the price of each can be seen at a glance besides the price of each house it's easy to see how the houses compare in price B is least expensive e is most expensive for instance the length of each line is what shows the price of each house so the lines can be widened into bars to make them easy to read now that the picture is done it might be called it is another kind of graph the pictures numbers in a simple and interesting way using the graphs mr. smiles made for him mr. newcomer started out to look over the houses for sale on Maple Street and this is where his search ended it was just the house he wanted so mr. newcomer moved in everything seemed fine all except the color of the house the fact is mr. newcomer never did care for red very much he really would like the house painted another color mr. newcomer obtained the records of the man who had owned the house before he bought it they showed that ten years ago it cost one hundred eighty dollars to paint the house six years ago two hundred dollars and two years ago the house painting bill was $225 they showed some important facts and statistics mr. newcomer arranges the bill in order from the smallest amount to the largest on a piece of paper he draws a horizontal line and calls it years painted and a vertical line showing painting cost on this line he marks off equal divisions to represent amounts of $50 50 100 150 200 and so forth to $300 the other line represents years starting with this year and going to the left one two three four years ago and so on - ten years ago each division mark is extended across the grass this makes the grass easier to read ten years ago it cost $180 to paint the house on the vertical line 180 is past the division 150 but not as far as 200 the amount 180 would be shown about here on the line this point represents two things a time 10 years ago and the cost of painting the house six years ago when the house was painted the work cost exactly 200 dollars so this can be shown on the graph where the lines representing two hundred dollars and six years ago cross two years ago it cost $25 more $225 halfway between 200 and 250 on the two years ago line to use this kind of graph the points where years and costs are shown are connected with a line this graph should be called because this is exactly what information give it is a mine grass the line that connects the points for cost and years painted shows that each time the house has been painted during the past ten years the cost of painting has risen this graph would be useful if we wanted to know about how much it would have cost to paint the house during any past year eight years ago it would have cost between 180 and 200 dollars five years ago the job would have cost a little more than two hundred dollars the line graph shows another important relationship among the numbers of years and cost of painting if prices keep rising in the same manner it will cost about two hundred forty dollars to paint the house this year this is the information mr. newcomer has been looking for mr. newcomer had his house painted and the bill was just about $240 now mr. newcomer was completely satisfied with his new house and mr. smiles was glad to have helped him find it of course mr. newcomer and mr. smiles aren't real people and pleasant build isn't even a real town what Israel is the importance of graphs in our everyday life [Music]