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Scatter diagrams reveal relationships between two variables by plotting paired data points and showing how one variable tends to change as the other changes. This helps you see the direction (increasing or decreasing), the strength (tight vs. scattered), and the form of the relationship (linear, curved, or no clear pattern). It also helps spot outliers and unusual clusters that might affect analysis.

They don’t show the distribution of a single variable—that’s what histograms or box plots are for. They don’t directly provide the mean or median, which are central-tendency measures calculated from the data. And while a scatter plot can include time as one variable, its primary purpose is to illustrate relationships, not the sequence of data over time.