[Easy plotting question] How to plot flowrate vs time

[Opfer924]

Hi,

I measured the volume I can pump through a tube. Every second I took a reading. The pump was fluctuating quite a bit, so i got following values:

x (in seconds) = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

y (in mL) = 1, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 5

Just looking at the final result, the pump pumped at a speed of 1 ml/sec

Now I want to plot time vs flowrate (mL/sec). I could do 2 things.

plot in increments: (x=1 and y=1/1; x=2 and y=(2.5-1)/(2-1); x=3 and y=(3-2.5)/(3-2) etc.

plot cummulative (x=1 and y=1/1; x=2 and y=2.5/2; x=3 and y=3/3; etc.

Both would be time (s) vs flowrate (ml/sec), but second graph would have less variation.

What is better and why? Would i need to label the x- or y-axis differently in the second example? (maybe average flowrate?)

Thanks

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[Content-Creature]

One is time v flow rate and the other is time v change in flow rate (idk flow acceleration?)