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Secondary 1 · Mathematics
Statistics · Statistics

Data Representation

Your class voted on the theme for the end-of-year party, and the teacher wrote the votes down in a long list. How do you show it so everyone can see the winner at a glance? Each type of graph works for a different type of data: choosing the right one is just as important as drawing it correctly.

Organizing the data: frequency table

Before drawing almost any graph, it helps to organize the data in a frequency table. You count how many times each value appears.

  • Absolute frequency $f_i$: how many times the value appears.

  • Total $N$: the sum of all the absolute frequencies.

  • Relative frequency $h_i = \frac{f_i}{N}$: the part of the total that it represents. Multiplied by $100$, it is a percent.

  • Cumulative frequency $F_i$: the sum of the absolute frequencies of the value and all the previous ones (in order).

And the other way around: if you know the relative frequency or the percent, the absolute frequency is $f_i = h_i \times N$. This is because $h_i$ is the fraction of the total that corresponds to the value.

Hour New views ($f_i$) Cumulative ($F_i$)
1 $150$ $150$
2 $250$ $400$
3 $350$ $750$
4 $150$ $900$

The other way around, if you are given cumulative frequencies, the frequency of each row is the difference from the previous one: $750 - 400 = 350$.

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Look at this bar chart about the number of siblings of the students in a class and complete the frequency table below: | No. of siblings | Absolute frequency ($f_i$) | |…

Look at this bar chart about the number of siblings of the students in a class and complete the frequency table below:

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 1 2 3+ Number of siblings Students 8 12 6 4
No. of siblings Absolute frequency ($f_i$)
$0$
$1$
$2$
$3$ or more
Total

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve
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Lucía asked her $20$ teammates what their favorite sneaker color was. The results were: Red, Blue, Blue, White, Red, White, White, Blue, Red, White, Blue, Blue, White,…

Lucía asked her $20$ teammates what their favorite sneaker color was. The results were:

Red, Blue, Blue, White, Red, White, White, Blue, Red, White, Blue, Blue, White, Red, White, White, Blue, White, Blue, White.

  1. a) Organize these data into a frequency table including the color and the absolute frequency ($f_i$).
  2. b) What is the mode of this study?
  3. c) Draw a simple bar graph in your notebook to represent these results.
Solve
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From the following bar chart about the number of pets owned by the students in a class, carry out the reverse process: 1. Create the frequency table (absolute and…

From the following bar chart about the number of pets owned by the students in a class, carry out the reverse process:

  1. Create the frequency table (absolute and relative frequencies).

  2. Calculate the total number of students who took part in the survey.

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 fᵢ 0 1 2 3 Number of pets (xᵢ)

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve

Pictogram

A pictogram uses a simple picture that represents a fixed amount of data. You always have to include the key: how much each symbol is worth.

Pictogram of books checked out from Monday to Wednesday; each rectangle represents 5 checkouts. Monday Tuesday Wednesday each ▮ = 5 checkouts
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A group of friends noted down how many pieces of fruit they eat per week. They represented the data in this pictogram, where each fruit symbol 🍎 represents $3$ pieces of…

A group of friends noted down how many pieces of fruit they eat per week. They represented the data in this pictogram, where each fruit symbol 🍎 represents $3$ pieces of fruit eaten.

= 3 piezas Ana Luis Sara
  1. a) How many pieces of fruit did Ana eat in total?
  2. b) Who ate exactly $6$ pieces of fruit?
  3. c) How many more pieces of fruit than Luis did Sara eat?
Solve
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At the school library they want to visualize how many books have been lent out each day of the week. They have decided to use a pictogram where each "book" symbol…

At the school library they want to visualize how many books have been lent out each day of the week. They have decided to use a pictogram where each "book" symbol represents $5$ loans.

Day Books lent
Monday $20$
Tuesday $15$
Wednesday $25$
Thursday $10$
Friday $30$

Draw the corresponding pictogram in your notebook using a simple symbol to represent the books. Calculate how many symbols you need for each day.

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve
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In an animal shelter, they counted how many bags of food they consume per month. They used this pictogram where each drawing of a "bone" $\square$ represents…

In an animal shelter, they counted how many bags of food they consume per month. They used this pictogram where each drawing of a "bone" $\square$ represents $15 \text{ kg}$ of food.

  • January: $\square \square \square \square$

  • February: $\square \square \square$

  • March: $\square \square \square \square \square$

Knowing that the shelter has $30$ dogs and that each dog should eat $0.75 \text{ kg}$ per day, construct a frequency table with the kilograms consumed each month and explain whether in any month the dogs ate less than they need (assume all months have 30 days).

= 15 kg (Pᵤ) January February March

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve

Bar graph

It is used for categorical variables (color, video game genre) or discrete numerical variables (number of siblings). Each value gets a bar whose height equals its frequency. The bars are drawn separated and the vertical axis is marked off evenly, with labels on both axes.

To build it: (1) organize the data in a frequency table (previous section), (2) choose a scale that reaches the greatest frequency, (3) draw one bar per value, all with the same width.

Bar graph with separated bars showing the number of pets of the students in a class. 0123 48 pets (absolute frequency)
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In a first-year ($1º$) secondary school class, a survey was carried out on the students' favorite video game genre. Look at the following bar chart and answer the…

In a first-year ($1º$) secondary school class, a survey was carried out on the students' favorite video game genre. Look at the following bar chart and answer the questions:

15 10 5 0 Adventure Sports RPG Others 12 15 8 5
  1. a) Which video game genre do students like the most (the mode)?
  2. b) How many students prefer adventure games?
  3. c) If we sum all the responses, how many students took part in the survey?
Solve
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In a library, they counted how many books of each type were borrowed in a day. They have started drawing the bar chart, but the last bar is missing. a) If we know that…

In a library, they counted how many books of each type were borrowed in a day. They have started drawing the bar chart, but the last bar is missing.

15 10 5 0 Novel Poetry Comic 15 10 ?
  1. a) If we know that $12$ comics were borrowed, how high should the "Comic" bar reach on the vertical axis?
  2. b) Which type of book has been borrowed the least so far?
  3. c) Is Poetry the "mode"? Reason your answer by looking at the chart.

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve
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En una clase de $1º$ de secundaria se ha realizado una votación para elegir la temática de la fiesta de fin de curso. Los resultados han sido los siguientes: Superhéroes…

En una clase de $1º$ de secundaria se ha realizado una votación para elegir la temática de la fiesta de fin de curso. Los resultados han sido los siguientes: Superhéroes ($8$ votos), Espacio ($6$ votos), Misterio ($10$ votos) y Deportes ($4$ votos).

Calculate the relative frequency of each option and represent the data in a bar chart. Make sure the vertical axis is correctly scaled and labeled.

10 8 6 4 2 0 fᵢ Theme 8 6 10 4 Superheroes Space Mystery Sports
Solve
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Look at the following two graphs. They represent the sales of a sneaker shop in two different months. a) Which of the two graphs can be misleading or give the false…

Look at the following two graphs. They represent the sales of a sneaker shop in two different months.

Two bar charts with sneaker sales in month 1 (92) and month 2 (100); chart A has the vertical axis from 90 to 100 and chart B from 0 to 100 Chart A 90 92 94 96 98 100 92 100 Month 1 Month 2 Chart B 0 20 40 60 80 100 92 100 Month 1 Month 2
  1. a) Which of the two graphs can be misleading or give the false impression that sales have grown enormously?
  1. b) Look at the vertical axis. Do both start at zero? Explain why it is important that statistical axes are not "truncated".
Solve
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A study has been carried out on the number of siblings of the students in a class. The relative frequency bar chart shows that: $20\%$ have no siblings. $50\%$ have 1…

A study has been carried out on the number of siblings of the students in a class. The relative frequency bar chart shows that:

  • $20\%$ have no siblings.

  • $50\%$ have 1 sibling.

  • $25\%$ have 2 siblings.

  • The rest have 3 siblings.

If there are $40$ students in the class in total, build the absolute frequency table and draw the absolute frequency bar chart. What height would the "1 sibling" bar reach on the absolute frequency chart?

Relative frequency bar chart of the number of siblings: 0 siblings 20 %, 1 sibling 50 %, 2 siblings 25 %, 3 siblings 5 % 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Relative frequency (hᵢ) 0 1 2 3 No. of siblings 20% 50% 25% 5%

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve

Circle graph

The circle graph (or pie chart) shows what part of the total each value represents. Each sector has an angle proportional to its frequency:

$$\text{angle} = \frac{f_i}{N} \times 360^\circ = h_i \times 360^\circ$$

This is because the full circle ($360^\circ$) is the total ($100\%$): if a value is half of the data, it takes up half of the circle.

Circle graph showing the proportion of students who prefer each sport. ■ soccer: 40 % → 144° ■ baseball: 25 % → 90° ■ swimming: 20 % → 72° ■ other: 15 % → 54°

You can also work backward: if you know the angle, $f_i = \frac{\text{angle}}{360^\circ} \times N$. If the $108^\circ$ sector corresponds to $30$ people, every $36^\circ$ is $10$ people (because $108 \div 36 = 3$ and $30 \div 3 = 10$). Since $360^\circ$ is $10$ times $36^\circ$, the total is $N = 10 \times 10 = 100$ people.

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The following circle graph represents how the $40$ students in a grade travel to school. Given that half of the class walks, a quarter goes by bus and the rest goes by…

The following circle graph represents how the $40$ students in a grade travel to school. Given that half of the class walks, a quarter goes by bus and the rest goes by car:

1/2 1/4 1/4 Walking Bus Car N = 40
  1. a) How many students walk to school?
  2. b) How many students go by bus?
  3. c) What angle in degrees corresponds to the sector of students who walk? (Remember that a full circle is $360^\circ$).
Solve
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A group of friends wants to organize a trip and has asked $40$ classmates about their preferred destination. The results are shown in the following table: | Destination…

A group of friends wants to organize a trip and has asked $40$ classmates about their preferred destination. The results are shown in the following table:

Destination Absolute Frequency ($f_i$)
Beach $15$
Mountains $10$
European City $10$
Adventure (Campsite) $5$

To represent these data in a circle graph, calculate the angle corresponding to each sector. Remember that the total sum of the angles must be $360^\circ$.

α₁ α₂ α₃ α₄ αᵢ = (fᵢ / N) · 360° Beach (f₁=15) α₁ = ?° Mountains (f₂=10) α₂ = ?° City (f₃=10) α₃ = ?° Campsite (f₄=5) α₄ = ?° Total (N=40) Σ = 360°
Solve
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The following circle graph represents how students at a school manage their free time. Given that the school has $200$ students in total, find out how many students…

The following circle graph represents how students at a school manage their free time. Given that the school has $200$ students in total, find out how many students prefer each activity based on the percentages given:

  • Video games: $40\%$

  • Sports: $30\%$

  • Reading: $20\%$

  • Music: $10\%$

Reproduce it in your notebook by calculating the angle in degrees for each sector.

40% 30% 20% 10% Video games Sports Reading Music Total = 200
Solve
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In a survey conducted among the $120$ students of 1st ESO about their favorite streaming platform, the following results were obtained: $40\%$ prefer Netflix, $30$…

In a survey conducted among the $120$ students of 1st ESO about their favorite streaming platform, the following results were obtained: $40\%$ prefer Netflix, $30$ students choose Disney+, the relative frequency of HBO is $0.15$ and the rest opt for Twitch.

Calculate the absolute frequency of each category and draw a pie chart. To do this, you must indicate the exact angle in degrees for each sector using the formula: $Ángulo = \frac{f_i}{N} \times 360^\circ$.

40% fᵢ=30 hᵢ=0.15 Rest N = 120 α = (fᵢ/N)·360° Netflix fᵢ=? α=? Disney+ fᵢ=? α=? HBO fᵢ=? α=? Twitch fᵢ=? α=?
Solve
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Below is a circle graph showing the results of a vote to choose the color of the graduation t-shirt (Blue, Red, Green). The Blue sector measures $144^\circ$ and the Red…

Below is a circle graph showing the results of a vote to choose the color of the graduation t-shirt (Blue, Red, Green). The Blue sector measures $144^\circ$ and the Red sector measures $108^\circ$.

  1. Calculate the angle of the Green sector.

  2. If we know that $30$ people voted for the color Red, how many people in total took part in the vote?

  3. Calculate the absolute frequencies of the other two colors and represent the final results in a bar graph.

144º 108º ?º Blue 144º Red 108º 30 votes Green ?º Σ = 360º
Solve

Line graph

The line graph shows how something changes over time (the temperature every hour, the height of a plant every week). You plot the points $(x, y)$ and connect them with segments. It shows when values rise, fall, or stay the same, and where the maximums and minimums are.

Line graph showing how a value changes over several months, with points connected by segments. JanMarJun

To compare two series (for example, two cities), you draw them on the same graph with different colors or styles. The mean can be drawn as a horizontal dotted line.

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The following table shows the temperature recorded in the school playground over five hours on a winter morning: | Time | $8:00$ | $9:00$ | $10:00$ | $11:00$ | $12:00$ |…

The following table shows the temperature recorded in the school playground over five hours on a winter morning:

Time $8:00$ $9:00$ $10:00$ $11:00$ $12:00$
Temp. ($^\circ C$) $4$ $6$ $9$ $12$ $11$
  1. a) Represent these data using a line graph (frequency polygon) in your exercise book.
  2. b) In which one-hour interval did the largest temperature increase occur?
  3. c) What was the temperature at ten o'clock in the morning?
Solve
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Match each statistical variable with the type of chart you think is most appropriate to represent it (you may repeat options): 1. Change in a baby's height month by…

Match each statistical variable with the type of chart you think is most appropriate to represent it (you may repeat options):

  1. Change in a baby's height month by month.

  2. Eye color of the students in your class.

  3. Distribution of a municipality's budget across different areas.

A) Circle graph.

B) Bar chart.

C) Line graph.

Solve
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A group of scientists is measuring the growth of a plant under a new LED light. Over 6 weeks, the height in centimeters has followed this progression:…

A group of scientists is measuring the growth of a plant under a new LED light. Over 6 weeks, the height in centimeters has followed this progression: $2, 5, 9, 14, 20, 27$.

Plot these data on a line graph. Then, add a second line (in another style or color) representing the "ideal height" if the plant grew by exactly $4 \text{ cm}$ per week (starting from the initial $2 \text{ cm}$). In which week is the difference between the actual plant and the ideal plant greatest?

0 10 20 30 S₁ S₂ S₃ S₄ S₅ S₆ Height (cm) Week Actual growth Ideal growth Max. diff. 27 22
Solve
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A YouTuber* analyses the views of his latest video. In the first 4 hours, the cumulative views were: Hour 1: $150$ views. Hour 2: $400$ views (in total). Hour 3: $750$…

A YouTuber analyses the views of his latest video. In the first 4 hours, the cumulative views were:

  • Hour 1: $150$ views.

  • Hour 2: $400$ views (in total).

  • Hour 3: $750$ views (in total).

  • Hour 4: $900$ views (in total).

Build a table that distinguishes between the absolute frequency (new views each hour) and the cumulative frequency. Represent the new views of each hour in a bar chart. In which hour was there the greatest success in attracting new viewers?

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve
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Compare the following two sets of data on the mean temperature ($^\circ\text{C}$) recorded at midday over a week in two different cities: City A:…

Compare the following two sets of data on the mean temperature ($^\circ\text{C}$) recorded at midday over a week in two different cities:

  • City A: $12, 14, 15, 12, 11, 13, 14$

  • City B: $18, 17, 19, 18, 20, 19, 18$

Plot both cities on the same line graph (use two different colors or line styles). Calculate the mean temperature for each city and draw a dashed horizontal line representing the mean for City B. Which of the two cities shows more stable temperatures (smaller range)?

Temperature (°C) Days of the week 10º 12º 14º 16º 18º 20º 22º Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mean A 13.0º Mean B 18.4º City B City A
Solve

Histogram and frequency polygon

When the variable is continuous (height, time) and the data are grouped in intervals, you use a histogram: like a bar graph, but the bars are drawn touching, because one interval ends where the next begins. The interval $[150, 160)$ includes $150$ but not $160$.

Histogram of the time in minutes to get to school with four 10-minute intervals and touching bars. 010203040 time to get to school (min)

The frequency polygon connects the midpoints of the top of each bar. With ungrouped data, it connects the points $(x_i, f_i)$. It summarizes how the data are distributed and shows the trend.

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The number of hours that $20$ teenagers spend doing sports per week has been recorded: $2, 4, 3, 5, 2, 6, 4, 3, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 3$. Build the absolute…

The number of hours that $20$ teenagers spend doing sports per week has been recorded:

$2, 4, 3, 5, 2, 6, 4, 3, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 3$.

Build the absolute frequency table and represent the data using a frequency polygon. What trend do you observe in the graph?

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve
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The height of the players on a youth basketball team has been measured (in $cm$). Since the data are very varied, they have been grouped into intervals: $[150, 160)$:…

The height of the players on a youth basketball team has been measured (in $cm$). Since the data are very varied, they have been grouped into intervals:

  • $[150, 160)$: $4$ players

  • $[160, 170)$: $7$ players

  • $[170, 180)$: $10$ players

  • $[180, 190)$: $3$ players

Represent these data using a histogram. Remember that in a histogram, unlike in a bar chart, the columns are placed right next to each other because the variable is continuous.

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve
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A video game company has recorded how many hours its users play per day. The data have been grouped into the following intervals: $[0, 2)$, $[2, 4)$, $[4, 6)$ and…

A video game company has recorded how many hours its users play per day. The data have been grouped into the following intervals: $[0, 2)$, $[2, 4)$, $[4, 6)$ and $[6, 8)$. The absolute frequencies are $25, 40, 15$ and $10$ respectively.

  1. a) Draw the corresponding histogram.
  1. b) Next, draw the frequency polygon by joining the midpoints of the top of each bar.
  1. c) If the recommended healthy limit is less than $4$ hours, what percentage of users play more than recommended? Round to the nearest tenth.

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Solve

Back to the start: to show who won the party vote, the bar graph (or a circle graph) lets you see the winning option at a glance.

Summary

See all the exercises in this section