Question

the accompanying figure uses television sets to represent the number of homes with cable in 1960 and 2008. note that the heights of the tvs represent the number of homes. briefly explain how the graph creates a perceptual distortion that exaggerates the true change in the number of homes with cable. click the icon to view the accompanying figure. choose the correct answer. a. a perceptual distortion is created by the scale of the graphs. since the scales vary between the two images, it exaggerates the true change in the number of homes with cable. b. a perceptual distortion is created because the heights of the tvs represent the number of homes with cable, but the human eye tends to focus on the volumes of the tvs, exaggerating the true change to appear too large. c. a perceptual distortion is created because the volumes of the tvs represent the number of homes with cable, but the human

Explanation:

The problem involves a common graphical distortion where 3D objects (TVs) are used to represent 1D data (number of homes, indicated by height). The human eye naturally perceives the volume of the 3D TVs instead of just their height, leading to an exaggerated sense of the change—since volume scales with the cube of linear dimensions (height), while the actual data only scales linearly with height.

Answer:

B. A perceptual distortion is created because the heights of the TVs represent the number of homes with cable, but the human eye tends to focus on the volumes of the TVs, exaggerating the true change to appear too large.