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False zeros are sometimes used in a slightly shady manner to give a
wrong impression. Fig. B.2a shows the sort of graph that might
appear in a company-promoting prospectus. The word 'Profit'
would, of course, be in a big type, and the figures indistinctly, so that
the curve would seem to indicate a sensational growth in profits.
Plotted without a false zero, as in Fig. B.26, it looks much less
impressive. Provided that it is clearly admitted, however, a false zero
is useful for enabling the significant part of the scale to be expanded
and so read more precisely.
Fig. B.2, by the way, is not a true graph of the sort a mathe-
matician woul ...