[remus]

I think these choices are more context specific than is often appreciated. For example

> if I have measurements [A: 100, B: 101, C: 105], and then scale the axes to "fit around" the data (maybe from 100 to 106 on thy y axis), it will seem like C is 5x larger than B. In reality, it's only 1.05x larger.

If you were interested in the absolute difference between the values then starting your axis at 0 is going to make it hard to read.

[amenod]

It is however very rare that absolute differences matter; and even when they do, the scale should (often) be fixed. For example the temperatures:

[A: 27.0, B: 29.0, C: 28.0]

versus:

[A: 27.0, B: 27.2, C: 26.9]

If scale is fit to the min and max values, the charts will look the same.

Still, as a rule of thumb, when Y axis doesn't start at 0, the chart is probably misleading. It is very rare that the absolute size of the measured quantity doesn't matter.

[Tyr42]

Yeah, you should graph both starting at 0K right? You wouldn't want to mislead people into thinking somthing at 10C is ten times more hot than something at 1C.

[sandgiant]

Indeed. And if they don't you are probably better off normalizing your axis anyway.