Tahat Just Math · Self-paced practice

Read, Build and Summarize Data

Turn raw numbers into graphs and averages, one objective at a time.

248 questions · 11 learning objectives
Circle graph and bar graph illustrating data
Chapter 15: Graphs & Descriptive Statistics
Objectives 1–3

Construct, calculate and interpret circle graphs

A circle graph (pie chart) shows how a whole is shared among categories. The full circle is \(360^\circ\), so each category receives a central angle proportional to its share of the total.

Central angle from a percentage

\(\text{angle}=\frac{\text{percent}}{100}\times 360^\circ\)

Central angle from a count

\(\text{angle}=\frac{\text{category count}}{\text{total count}}\times 360^\circ\)

Objectives 4–5

Read line graphs and bar graphs

Line graph

Shows how a quantity changes. Find the given value on the horizontal axis, move up to the line, then across to the vertical axis (or the reverse for the opposite question).

Bar graph

Compares categories. Read each bar's height on the scale, then add, subtract or compare as the question asks.

Objectives 6–7

Build frequency distributions and histograms

  1. Choose equal-width class intervals that cover the smallest to the largest value.
  2. Tally each data value into exactly one interval and count the frequency \(f\).
  3. Check that the frequencies add up to the number of data values.
  4. For a histogram, draw one bar per interval, with the bar height equal to its frequency and no gaps between bars.
Objectives 8–11

Mean, median and mode

Mean

\(\bar{x}=\frac{\sum x}{n}\)

Add all values and divide by the number of values.

Median

Order the data. The median is the middle value; for an even count, it is the mean of the two middle values.

Mode

The most frequent value. A data set can have one mode, several modes, or none.

Mean of a frequency distribution

\(\bar{x}=\frac{\sum xf}{\sum f}\)

Use the midpoint \(x\) of each interval, multiply by its frequency \(f\), then add the products and divide by the total frequency.