Plotting Points Practice Problems


Try these sample problems on first your own so you can see if you understand. If you need help or just want to check your answers, you can reveal the answers.
You can download graph paper here (Acrobat (PDF) 7kB Sep10 08).

If you need to print the steps for reference, download the worksheet with plotting points steps (Acrobat (PDF) 35kB Sep10 08). You can also download the questions (Acrobat (PDF) 31kB Jul24 09) to print them.

The Problems

Problem 1. You collect samples from several of the islands and seamounts on the Hawaiian-Emperor chain, and determine their age. Plot the distance from Kilauea for each sample against the age of the sample.
Volcano Name Age (Myr) Distance (km)
Kilauea 0 0
East Maui 0.75 182
Kauai 5.10 519
Necker 10.30 1058
Laysan 19.90 1818


Problem 2. You want to create a topographic profile of elevations across the Fox River Valley in Appleton. A profile is essentially a graph of elevation versus distance. Graph the following information. In this example the distance is the distance from the intersection of S. Mason and S. Spencer and the elevation is feet above sea-level.
Distance (mi) Elevation (ft)
0 800
0.1 795
0.2 790
0.3 795
0.4 790
0.5 765
0.6 735
0.7 735
0.8 785
0.9 790


Problem 3. Records from Mercer Creek near Seattle show a 12-year flood (a flood with a recurrence interval of 12 years) has a discharge of 812 ft3/sec , a 6-year flood has a discharge of 670 ft3/sec, a 3-year flood has a discharge of 612 ft3/sec, and a 2 year flood has a discharge of 504 ft3/sec. Plot this data with recurrence interval on the x-axis and discharge on the y-axis.

Next Steps

TAKE THE QUIZ!!

I think I've mastered plotting points and I am ready to take the quiz!
This link takes you to WAMAP. If your instructor has not given you instructions about wamap, you may not have to take the quiz.
If you still need help, you can go back to the explanation page or look at some of the links below.

Need more practice?


HotMath has some problems where you can practice plotting pairs of data.

The Oswego (NY) City School District has a fun little game with Billy Bug to practice plotting data on an x-y plot.