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Originally Posted by nvmu
except if you look at the wikipedia page that someone else posted the ink to the graph is x= quantity and y= price
graphs are read x,y not y,x so it would be as supply increases price increases, as demand increases price decreases ( i am also in ap physics, we do alot with graphs and proportions, the way you are syaing it x=price and y= supply/demand, which makes no logical sense seeing that supply/demand determines price and not the other way around)
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I don't mean to sound negative in any way towards you but
YOU are the one totally reading the graph completely wrong. That graph in wikipedia is showing a correlation between demand and supply. It is
NOT interpreted as an x vs. y graph which is what you are reading it as. The graph is
not read as, "as quantity increases, prices decrease." which is how the graph would be read in terms of an x vs. y graph (with respect to the demand line). The problem with how you're looking at the graph is you're most likely used to physics type graphs with a manipulated variable plotted on the x axis, and a responding variable correspondingly recorded on the y-axis.
The real interpretation of the graph (and this is clearly depicted in the text below the graph that is included in the wikipedia article) is its showing a correlation between what happens with price and quantity as the supply and demand on the graph are changed. You have to think of
both the x and y axis as responding variables. The y-axis (price) is
not a responding variable according to quantity. The real responding variables are how demand and supply correlate to each other as well as how the variables in each axis respond according to each change.
Basically its showing a situation at the very start of the graph that demand is currently high for a particular item, while supply is low. With respect to these 2 conditions, price is high for that item (since demand for that item is high), correspondingly supply for that item is low and thus quantity is low. As u see demand decrease, price correspondingly decreases and supply increases, quantity has increased. These 2 lines(demand and supply) are considered with respect to one another, since supply has increased demand decreases (basically people who want the item have gotten it, thus eliminating their demand for it, supply is not low so demand does not remain high)
Once again to summarize, the graph is
not an x vs. y graph, and don't say there is no such thing because there are. The axises are responding variables according to how supply and demand are changed. Its not reading that price is high, so demand is high. Think about that for a moment, if the price of an item is ridiculously high, are thousands of people wanting it?. Use an example of a pencil... if a standard HB wooden pencil costs 100 dollars... are there gonna be thousands of people lining up for it with a huge demand to get this 100 dollar pencil? I think not.
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