The knobs are connected to a pulley system, which moves a brass stylus along an X-Y axis.

FORBES: How Does An Etch A Sketch Work, Anyway?

The value on the Y axis are decimals of how big the base will be compared to today.

FORBES: The Best Drug Companies Of 2020

In the graph below, the Y axis is the citation score and the X axis is the number of publications in total.

FORBES: The Most Innovative Countries In Biology And Medicine

The vertical axis (Y axis) is the compounded portfolio return and the horizontal axis (X axis) is portfolio risk as measured by the annual standard deviation of return.

FORBES: Basics of Asset Allocation (Part 2 of 2)

To explain the graph a bit more clearly, the X axis is months and years, while the Y axis is the volume of industrial activity as a percentage of the average monthly output of 2009 (which, it should be noted, was depressed as a result of the global financial crisis).

FORBES: Russian Industrial Production Increases by 4% over 1st Quarter 2011

Risk is commonly placed on the x-axis, and return is placed on the y-axis.

FORBES: The Efficient Frontier

Near field communications (NFC) is among the leaders with very high expectations (Y-axis) and a (5-10)-year cycle before a plateau.

FORBES: 8 Great Mobile Technology Articles You Must Read This Week

The key, I concluded, is to plot the different kinds of consequences of work (y-axis) against the different types of groups (x-axis) that do the work.

FORBES: The Fundamental 2x2 of Capitalism

Analog joystick with central push-button two axis (X and Y) and a center pushbutton.

ENGADGET: Arduino Esplora helps you learn microcontrollers without the pesky breadboard

On the x-axis is the rate of unemployment, on the y the rate of inflation.

FORBES: Magazine Article