4. Choosing a Data Display
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What types of data displays do you know?
Example Solution: Bar graph or histogram, see solution.
Let's recall the types of data displays we can use to describe a data set.
Data Display Type | When Do We Use It? |
---|---|
Pictograph | To show data using pictures |
Dot Plot | To show the number of times each value occurs in a data set |
Stem-and-Leaf Plot | To show how ordered numerical data are distributed |
Box-and-Whisker Plot | To show the variability of a data set by using quartiles |
Circle Graph | To show data as parts of a whole |
Bar Graph | To show frequencies of data values in specific categories |
Histogram | To show frequencies of data values in intervals of the same size |
Line Graph | To show how data change over time |
Scatter Plot | To show the relationship between two data sets using ordered pairs plotted in a coordinate plane |
Now, we want to choose an appropriate data display for the following situation.
The population of the United States divided into age groups |
Here we want to present the frequency which is the number of people that fall into a specific category — the age group. This means that we could use a bar graph or a histogram. Remember that, for a histogram, the age groups should be expressed as intervals of the same size. The bar graph for this situation could look like the following.