Chart assignment

Charts to read and discuss

Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.

  1. What interest rate does a 2-year Treasury note pay?
  2. How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?

Chart 1 of 2 · Interest rates

What interest rate does a 2-year Treasury note pay?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

The 2-year Treasury rate averaged 4.74% a year in October 2026, up from 3.52% in October 2025. It tends to follow where investors expect the Federal Reserve to set short-term rates over the next two years. It peaked at 16.46% in September 1981 and hit a low of 0.12% in February 2021. The series begins in June 1976.

Questions to discuss

  1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
  2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
  3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Source: Federal Reserve Board, H.15 Selected Interest Rates (monthly averages) (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Oct 31, 2026

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · Earthquakes

How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

In 2025 the world recorded 6,428 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 to 4.9, 1,983 of magnitude 5, 129 of magnitude 6, 15 of magnitude 7 and 1 of magnitude 8 or more. Each step up in magnitude is roughly ten times rarer, and releases about 32 times more energy. Countless smaller quakes go unrecorded worldwide, so the chart starts at 4.5.

How to read this chart

Each bar counts the earthquakes recorded worldwide in one year within a range of magnitudes. The bars start at zero. Each whole step up in magnitude releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7 quake is far more than one step stronger than a 6.

Questions to discuss

  1. Roughly how many times more common is each band than the one above it?
  2. The biggest bars are hard to compare with the smallest ones on this scale. What other way could you show these numbers?
  3. The chart starts at magnitude 4.5. Why might smaller earthquakes around the world go uncounted?

Source: U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat) (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Geological Survey) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

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