DEMAND CURVE, DEMAND CURVE OF QUANTITY
What is a Demand Curve?
A demand curve is a graph which shows the relationship between the price of a good and the
quantity demanded at that price for a given period of time.
The demand curve slopes downward from left to right i.e. it has a negative slope because
there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. This is the proposition
of the law of demand.
The law of demand states that as the price of a commodity decreases, the quantity demanded
of that commodity increases and vice versa, citrus paribus (i.e. other things remaining
constant.)
One or more combinations of price and quantity demanded of a commodity are plotted and
after joining the plotted
points, a demand curve is drawn.
In the graph, the X axis represents the quantity demanded and the Y axis represents the price
of the commodity.
The table beside the graph shows the price of the commodity and its corresponding quantity
demanded.
We can see that when the price is Rs. 10, the quantity demanded is 0 units. Then, as the price
decreases to Rs. 8, the quantity demanded increases to 2 units. Further, as the price
decreases to Rs. 6, the quantity demanded increases to 4 units.
In the graph, different combinations of price and quantity demanded are plotted and a
downward sloping demand curve is drawn by joining all the points.
This shows that there is a definite inverse relationship between price of a commodity and its
quantity demanded.
