Plotting the Numbers

Demand Schedule	Demand Curve

The demand curve is finalized by connecting these 10 points with a continuous line. The 10 prices corresponding to these 10 points, are but 10 of an infinite number of prices, each with a corresponding quantity. A continuous line includes these other possibilities. To reveal this line, click the [Draw] button. The end result is the demand curve.

What It All Means

A Demand Curve Yellow Tarantulas

• First, as the price increases from a low of $5 to a high of $50, the quantity demanded of Yellow Tarantulas decreases from 90 to 0. Higher prices are related to smaller quantities. This relation, this inverse relation between demand price and quantity demanded, IS the basic law of demand.


• Second, the demand curve represents maximum values. That is, if the price is $40, then the maximum quantity demanded is 20 Yellow Tarantulas. It is not 50, nor even 21, but only 20. Alternatively, if buyers buy 20 Yellow Tarantulas, then the maximum demand price they are willing and able to pay is $40, not $50, not even $40.01, but $40.


• Third, this whole curve, every price-quantity combination on the curve, is demand. Demand is the entire range of prices and quantities, all pairs. Demand is the entire curve. In contrast, quantity demanded is any specific number of Yellow Tarantulas buyers are willing and able to buy at a specific demand price. Selecting a different price generates a different quantity demanded. Quantity demanded is a point on the curve.


• Fourth, this demand curve represents hypothetical possibilities. It suggests a "What if" relation between demand price and quantity demanded. It indicates quantity demanded given a demand price, or demand price given the quantity demanded. If, for example, the demand price is $10, then buyers are willing and able to buy 100 Yellow Tarantulas. This does not mean that buyers will buy, are buying, or ever will buy 100 Yellow Tarantulas. It only indicates what they would buy at a $10 price.