File talk:Influenza-2009-cases-logarithmic.png
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It's quite interesting to note that this graph looks very compatible with an exponential for the USA and Global totals. Mexico had huge lags in reporting, so it's harder to say, but it still looks like it would be compatible (or: a straight line from the beginning to the end is quite compatible with most of the data, except for the days where there was little or no update). "Other" total looks linear. Deaths still is a very small sample to get any conclusions.
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This configuration is compatible with an epidemic in the USA and Mexico (maybe in Canada too?), with residual cases in other countries. It also makes the Mexican position that "everything is under control" hard to justify. Pmbarros (talk) 18:26, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
- I think this graph is fantastic and strongly support its inclusion in articles on the epidemic. It conveys information on the growth in the number of cases much more effectively than a non-logarithmic graph. I've even used it in my mathematics course to demonstrate a real world example of exponential growth to my students. However I have One Criticism. Please do away with the separate axes for deaths and cases. Use the same scale for both. If plotted on the same scale the line for cases should end up parallel to the line for deaths, with the vertical distance between them representing the fatality rate for the virus. You can't look at this if separate scales are used. The fact that the two lines do not look parallel if the same scale is used is interesting and by itself is an indication that we probably don't yet have accurate figures on the infection rate in mexico. By using separate scales which are differently logarithmic (logarithms to different bases) you are obscuring this. Hawthorn (talk) 05:28, 13 May 2009 (UTC)