title: matplotlib: Incorrect scale of axis
body: <p>I have a csv file that looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Axis [m],Channel 1 [],Channel 2 [],Channel 3 [],Channel 4 []
  0,11.87772978,65.2269997,7.103221875,6.324708559
  1.34E-08,17.65605321,75.09093444,8.309697828,14.87524308
  2.69E-08,15.19155521,77.12878487,12.31291774,9.457125362
  4.03E-08,23.85118853,88.76138941,20.10571063,8.041540228
  5.38E-08,18.77440037,87.15681445,14.53884458,13.36609689
  6.72E-08,19.54841939,117.9766076,16.87197928,18.50902666
  8.06E-08,33.37595782,102.2086995,40.59474863,9.451430137
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to plot the values in the first two columns using matplotlib</p>
  
  <p>I have the following code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  import pylab, csv
  
  x=[]
  y=[]
  with open("test.csv","rU") as f:
          reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter=',')
          for row in reader:
                  if re.search("\d",row[0]):
                      x.append(float(row[0]))
                      y.append(float(row[1]))
  fig = plt.figure()
  ax1 = fig.add_subplot(121)
  
  ax1.scatter(x,y,color='blue',s=5,edgecolor='none')
  ax1.set_aspect(1./ax1.get_data_ratio()) # make axes square
  
  pylab.savefig('test.jpg')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, this plots all my x-values (122 total values), as a line around 0 (not as a curve as I would expect) see <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/e94rnd5v87o869q/test.jpg" rel="nofollow">here</a> for an example. I think that this is because the scale of the x-axis is bunching all the data together around 0. 
  I think I will need to change the scale of the x-axis to deal with the small numbers?<br>
  Any help, as always, will be highly appreciated!</p>