Misleading Pictures

When areas lie

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Our eyes judge pictures by area (or volume), not height.
• Doubling a picture’s height and width makes it look 4× bigger.
• Scale circles and pictures by area to represent values honestly.

Steps

1. The bigger bag of money
2. 3D pie charts
3. Honest bubbles
4. The lie factor
5. Honest pictograms
6. Draw it honestly