A linear scale assigns equal vertical distances to dollar changes in price; a logarithmic scale assigns equal vertical distances to percentage changes in price.

In “ When Should I Use Logarithmic Scales in My Charts and Graphs ”, I showed the revenues of the top 60 Forbes 500 companies using both linear and logarithmic scales.

Back when I first started charting the spread of coronavirus I decided not to use a logarithmic scale. I figured that log scales were fine for communicating with other professionals, but most ...

"Compared to a linear scale the logarithmic scale provides an easy and more manageable way to represent this wide range of ground motion amplitude (often many orders of magnitude) and energy ...

When thinking in terms of ratios and logarithmic scales (rather than differences and linear scales), one times three is three, and three times three is nine, so three is in the middle of one and nine.

Excel defaults to a linear scale for graphs, but you can easily change it to logarithmic to suit wide data ranges or logarithmic phenomena. The Chart Wizard produces graphs with linear scales.

The logarithmic scale is not compatible with this sort of intuitive simplicity. Unfortunately, a linear scale isn’t a perfect alternative, either.