SS - Displaying Data Lesson

Displaying Data

Introduction

Looking at a data set of values for too long can hurt your vision. No, that’s not true… but wouldn’t it be nice to have a more visual approach to data rather than trying to make sense of a huge list of numbers? It’s a good thing that there are multiple ways that we can display a data set! Let’s take a look at how line and bar graphs as well as stem and leaf and box-and-whisker plots can be helpful in displaying data. 

Line and Bar Graphs

Line Graphs

Line graphs are a great visual guide to data. Looking at a line graph will quickly let you know if the data is increasing or decreasing and whether the data has a pattern or is sporadic. They are very helpful in making predictions about the future behavior of the data set.

Bar Graphs

Stem and Leaf Plots

A stem-and-leaf plot is a condensed, organized way of displaying data. The advantages of using this type of display is that every data value is still showing. The data is also in ascending order, which makes the maximum, minimum and median values not so difficult to determine.

Penny is paid per article she writes. The following are the number of articles that she has written each month. Organize the values into a stem-and-leaf plot.

16, 17, 22, 23, 23, 25, 25, 26, 30, 32, 41, 47

Box and Whisker Plots

A box and whisker plot is another way to organize and display data. These types of displays put an emphasis on being able to see the spread, or the distribution, of the data. Click on the step numbers to see how to create a box and whisker plot.

16, 17, 22, 23, 23, 25, 25, 26, 30, 32, 41, 47

Practice

Please click on the checkmark in the bottom corner to move forward to the next question in the following activity.

Click here for more practice on creating box plots. Links to an external site.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS