Edward Tufte coined the term “lie factor” to refer to the ratio of the size of the effect shown in a graph to the size of the effect shown in the data. The baseline is the bottom of the Y-axis, repres...Edward Tufte coined the term “lie factor” to refer to the ratio of the size of the effect shown in a graph to the size of the effect shown in the data. The baseline is the bottom of the Y-axis, representing the least number of cases that could have occurred in a category. A line graph is essentially a bar graph with the tops of the bars represented by points joined by lines (the rest of the bar is suppressed).