Expert: John Locke - 11/5/2009

Question
Cumulative Oxygen Consumed  (mL)
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     Time (minutes)        0     10        20    30    40
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 22o C Germinating Seeds   0.0     8.8   16.0   23.7   32.0  
                    Dry Seeds   0.0     0.2        0.1      0.0      0.1
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 10o C Germinating Seeds    0.0      2.9      6.2       9.4    12.5
                    Dry Seeds    0.0      0.0      0.2       0.1      0.2
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hi my name is chrisy i need help with my homework...welll okay base on the data..i was wondering how do you plot the results for the germinating seeds at 22°C and 10°C.

Answer
I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here, but I'll tell you what I think. If you need to plot the data, you will probably want time to be your x-axis and oxygen consumption to be your y-axis. Both sets of data can be plotted on separate graphs, where the temperature is fixed for each graph (one graph for the 10 degree C data and the other for the 22 degree C data). Alternatively, you can plot the data for germinating seeds at both temperatures on one graph and dry seeds on another. Since you have three variables (temperature, time, and oxygen consumption), you necessarily have to hold one of them constant in order to plot the data in two dimensions. You could plot all three parameters on three-dimensional axes, but I suspect that this is probably beyond what you want to do. To accurately analyze these data, you will need some statistical measures that can evaluate the relative effects of each of these parameters on your results. You may only be able to present two variables at a time on a graph, but there are statistical techniques that can evaluate all three variables at once. Does this make sense?