4 ms·

Regarding [2], forgiving my ignorance in economics, how is that convention insane?

• jamesoswald 14y ago
  Typically, the independent variable is on the x axis and the dependent is on the y. Most modern economists consider price independent, hence the axes are reversed. The convention was created by Alfred Marshall and everyone has stuck to it ever since. I don't think it matters, since neither variable is causal. The "inputs" of the function are actually the supply and demand curves themselves and the output is both price and quantity.
• csense 14y ago
  It's more of a science-in-general thing: The near-universal [1] convention used in drawing graphs is to put the independent variable on the x axis. If the independent variable is price, then your thought process will be: "If the price is $100, then there will be 1000 buyers. If the price is $150, then there will be 700 customers." It's easy to think about things that way. If the independent variable is demand, then your thought process will be: "If there are 1000 people buying the product, it must cost $100. If there are 700 buyers, then it must cost $150." It seems counterintuitive to think in this way. [1] Except in economics, of course!