It’s a common scenario in analytics to use a mixed scale (one axis linear, the other logarithmic) on a chart when your two variables differ drastically in magnitude or growth patterns.
Use Cases
Financial Data
X-axis (linear): Time (e.g., months, quarters)
Y-axis (log): Revenue or market cap, when growth is exponential
Why: Makes early-stage small values visible while still accommodating huge later values.
Scientific Measurements
X-axis (linear): Temperature, pressure, or time
Y-axis (log): Concentration, intensity, or magnitude spanning multiple orders of magnitude
Customer Behavior
X-axis (linear): Number of sessions
Y-axis (log): Purchase amounts (some outliers may be huge)
Tech/Startup Metrics
X-axis (linear): Days since launch
Y-axis (log): Active users or downloads, especially if growth starts small but scales exponentially
Key Benefit:
The log axis compresses large values so patterns at lower levels aren’t lost, while the linear axis preserves natural spacing for the other variable.