Should I "standarize" the demand curve?

Question

Hi guys. Im doing an investigation at my high school about Demand and Supply. After i plot the curve for the demand i realized that the shape was horrible... Theoretically, the graph is a curve or a line... but it does not have the shape i got... so the question is: SHOULD I DRAW THE LINE OF BEST FIT FOR THE DEMAND?, OR SHOULD I LEAVE IT AS IT IS NOW? thanks!!

ps: sorry for the mistakes

ps2: the graph has 10 points only... so it isn't that difficult to draw the line of best fit nor to read it as it is...

Answer 1

When you get data from the real world you are usually sampling reality so you get a scatter in the data points. This is usually handled by statistical methods or on a graph by plotting the points with a "best fit line".

Answer 2

I am not sure why you are asking what you should or should not do. There is a field of economics called experimental economics which tries to come up with real demand curves and they are often very wierd looking for the first 10 -15 observations. However, as you take more observations, you generally get something like demand curve that obeys the various laws of demand. For example, when you do an entire class of 30 odd people, you generally get an equilibrium price and quantity.

Theoretically, theren't aren't that many restrictions on aggregate demand curves. I believe they must be functions - single valued - and they must be downward sloping, but they do not have to be convex or continuous.