Charts, Graphs and Averages

Presented on

28 November 2008

Charts and Graphs

Many different types of Charts and Graphs exist. You can use a variety of these to present information. We will consider 5 popular types:

Tally Chart Pictogram Pie Chart Bar Chart (and Histograms) Line Graph

Case Study
Twenty persons were asked for their shoe size and the results were recorded.

Tally Chart
Used for gathering/counting data

Tally Chart
Shoe Size 5 6 7 8 Number of Persons
2

6
5

1
4

9
11

Tally Chart

Table summarising Shoe Size Data

Shoe Size Number of persons

5 6
7 8

2 6
5 1

9
11

4
2

Total

20

Pictogram

Pie Chart
Like a pie being sliced up

Pie Chart
Pie Chart showing Shoe Sizes for 20 persons

11

Pie Chart
Visually pleasing to the eye Quick summary of data Commonly used for Election results Company accounts Does not help when comparing other quantities outside of that Pie chart????/

Bar Chart
Bar Chart showing Shoe Sizes for 20 persons
6 5

Number of persons

4 3 2 1 0 5 6 7 8 9 11 Shoe Sizes

Bar Chart
Good for all sorts of comparisons Visually appealing Used to represent data that is in whole numbers e.g. shoe sizes or popularity of celebrities Histograms (similar to bar charts) but used to present data that can carry several decimal places e.g. time, weight, height, OR data that has been organised in groups

Line Graph
Line Graph showing Shoe Sizes for 20 persons
7 6

Number of persons

5 4 3 2 1 0 5 6 7 Shoe Size 8 9 11

Line Graph
Commonly used to show rises and falls in - Share prices - House prices - Inflation Can be used to compare lots of information at the same time Less appealing to the average person

Which Chart or Graph to use?

Depends on: What message you want to get across The audience you are presenting the information to (what are they familiar with) What you prefer to use

Activity 1
Weekly Wage of Workers in a Small Business
300 250

Weekly Wage ()

200 150 100 50 0 Dan Paul Mark Sam Joy Sue Names of Workers

Question 1
What is the total wage bill for all the workers in the business? (a) 1,125 (b) 1,100 (c) 1,025 (d) 1,000

Question 2
Which of the following is true? (a) Dans wage is exactly half of Joys wage (b) Four workers have the same wage (c) Sues wage is more than the total of Sams and Joys wages (d) Mark earns twice as much as Dan

Answer to Question 1
a)

Answer to Question 2
d)

Activity 2
Pie Chart showing Election Results

Labour (45%) Conservative (30%) Liberal Democrat (15%) Independent (10%)

Question 1
30,000 people vote in an election. The results are shown in the pie chart above. How many people voted for the Liberal Democrat party?

Answer
The number of people who voted for the Liberal Democrat Party = 15% of 30,000 = 4,500 people

Averages

What is an Average?
An average value is a number that is typical for a set of figures. Four main types of averages 1) Mean, 2) Median, 3) Mode, and 4) Range

Mean
Most commonly used average is the Mean. Examples: Average price Average wage Average height

How to calculate the Mean

Mean = The total of the figures in the data set The number of figures in the data set

Examples of calculating the Mean

Example 1: Calculate the mean of 2, 3, and 7. Answer: The total of these numbers = 2 + 3 + 7 = 12 The number of figures = 3

Mean = 12 3 = 4 So the Mean is 4

Examples of calculating the Mean

Example 2: Calculate the mean of 16, 13, 21 and 14. Answer: The total of these numbers = 16 + 13 + 21 + 14 = 64 The number of figures = 4 Mean = 64 4 = 16 So the Mean is 16

Median
The figure located in the middle of a set of data when the numbers are arranged in ascending or descending order

Example of calculating the Median

Example 3: Find the Median of 9, 3, 5, 7, 10, 5 Answer: Arranged in ascending order: 3, 5, 5, 7, 9, 10 Number (s) in the middle of the list: 5 and 7 The Median is the exact middle figure, and so we need a number half way between 5 and 7 which is 6. So the Median is 6.

Mode

The Mode is the most common item that appears in a set of data.

Example of calculating the Mode

Example 4: Find the Mode of 6, 4, 6, 5, 3, 7, 6 Answer: Place the numbers in ascending or descending order. 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7 The most common number is 6 (appears 3 times) So the Mode is 6.

Range
The Range is the difference between the highest value and the lowest value in the set of numbers. It gives us an idea about the spread of the data.

Further Information
This presentation was based on various factsheets obtained from Skillswise at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise which is BBC Copyright. There are nine factsheets under the section Averages- understanding averages which will enable you to learn more.

Activity 3