KS3 Mathematics
D3 Representing and
interpreting data
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Contents
D3 Representing and interpreting data
D3.1 Bar charts
D3.2 Pie charts
D3.3 Frequency diagrams
D3.4 Line graphs
D3.5 Scatter graphs
D3.6 Comparing data
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Bar charts for categorical data
Bar charts can be used to display categorical or non-
numerical data.
For example, this bar graph shows how a group of children
travel to school.
How children travel to school
12
10
Number of children
0
walk train car bicycle bus other
Method of travel
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Bar charts for discrete data
Bar charts can be used to display discrete numerical data.
For example, this bar graph shows the number of CDs
bought by a group of children in a given month.
Number of CDs bought in a month
25
Number of children
20
15
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of CDs bought
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Bar charts for grouped discrete data
Bar charts can be used to display grouped discrete data.
For example, this bar graph shows the number of books
read by a sample of people over the space of a year.
Books read in one year
20+
Number of books
16-19
12-15
8 - 11
4-7
0-3
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
Number of people
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Bar charts for two sets of data
Two or more sets of data can be shown on a bar chart.
For example, this bar chart shows favourite subjects for a
group of boys and girls.
Girls' and boys' favourite subjects
8
7
Number of pupils
5
Girls
4
Boys
3
Maths Science English History PE
Favourite subject
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Bar line graphs
Bar line graphs are the same as bar charts except that lines
are drawn instead of bars.
For example, this bar line graph shows a set of test results.
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Drawing bar charts
When drawing bar chart remember:
Give the bar chart a title.
Use equal intervals on the axes.
Label both the axes.
Leave a gap between each bar.
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Drawing bar charts
Use the data in the frequency table to complete a bar chart
showing the the number of children absent from school from
each year group on a particular day.
Number of
Year
absences
7 74
8 53
9 32
10 11
11 10
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Contents
D3 Representing and interpreting data
D3.1 Bar charts
D3.2 Pie charts
D3.3 Frequency diagrams
D3.4 Line graphs
D3.5 Scatter graphs
D3.6 Comparing data
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Pie charts
A pie chart is a circle divided up into sectors which are
representative of the data.
In a pie chart, each category is shown as a fraction of the
circle.
Methods of travel to work
For example, in a
survey half the people
asked drove to work, a
quarter walked and a
quarter went by bus. Car
Walk
Bus
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Pie charts
This pie chart shows the distribution of drinks sold in a
cafeteria on a particular day.
Drinks sold in a cafeteria
Altogether 300 drinks were
sold.
Estimate the number of
coffee
each type of drink sold.
soft drinks
tea
Coffee: 75
Soft drinks: 50
Tea: 175
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Pie charts
These two pie charts compare the proportions of boys and
girls in two classes.
Mr Humphry's class Mrs Payne's class
Number of Number of
boys boys
Number of Number of
girls girls
Dawn says, “There are more girls in Mrs Payne’s class than in
Mr Humphry’s class.” Is she right?
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Drawing pie charts
To draw a pie chart you need a compass and a protractor.
The first step is to work out the angle needed to represent
each category in the pie chart.
There are two ways to do this.
The first is to work out how many degrees are needed
to represent each person or thing in the sample.
The second method is to work out what fraction of the
total we want to represent and multiply this by 360
degrees.
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Drawing pie charts
For example, 30 people were asked which newspapers they
read regularly.
The results were :
Newspaper Number of people
The Guardian 8
Daily Mirror 7
The Times 3
The Sun 6
Daily Express 6
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Drawing pie charts
Method 1
There are 30 people in the survey and 360º in a full pie chart.
Each person is therefore represented by 360º ÷ 30 = 12º
We can now calculate the angle for each category:
Newspaper No of people Working Angle
The Guardian 8 8 × 12º 96º
Daily Mirror 7 7 × 12º 84º
The Times 3 3 × 12º 36º
The Sun 6 6 × 12º 72º
Daily Express 6 6 × 12º 72º
Total 30 360º
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Drawing pie charts
Method 2
Write each category as a fraction of the whole and find this
fraction of 360º.
8 out of the 30 people in the survey read The Guardian so
to work out the size of the sector we calculate
8 × 360º = 96º
30
7 out of the 30 people in the survey read the Daily Mirror so
to work out the size of the sector we calculate
7
30 × 360º = 84º
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Drawing pie charts
Method 2
These calculations can be written into the table.
Newspaper No of people Working Angle
8
The Guardian 8 30
× 360º 96º
7
Daily Mirror 7 30
× 360º 84º
3
The Times 3 30
× 360º 36º
6
The Sun 6 30
× 360º 72º
6
Daily Express 6 30
× 360º 72º
Total 30 360º
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Drawing pie charts
Once the angles have been calculated you can draw the pie
chart.
Start by drawing a circle using
a compass. The Daily The
Draw a radius. Express Guardian
72º 96º
Measure an angle of 96º from
72º
the radius using a protractor The Sun 84º
and label the sector. 36º The Daily
Mirror
Measure an angle of 84º from The
Times
the the last line you drew and
label the sector.
Repeat for each sector until the pie chart is complete.
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Drawing pie charts
Use the data in the frequency table to complete the pie chart
showing the favourite colours of a sample of people.
Favourite No of
colour people
Red 10
Yellow 3
Blue 14
Green 5
Purple 4
Total 36
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Drawing pie charts
Use the data in the frequency table to complete the pie chart
showing the holiday destinations of a sample of people.
Holiday No of
destination people
UK 74
Europe 53
America 32
Asia 11
Other 10
Total 180
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Reading pie charts
The following pie chart shows the favourite crisp flavours of
72 children.
How many children preferred
Smokey ready salted crisps?
Prawn bacon
cocktail
55º
35º The proportion of children who
Salt and preferred ready salted is:
135º
vinegar 85º Ready
135
salted
50º = 0.375
360
Cheese
and The number of children who
onion
preferred ready salted is:
0.375 × 72 = 27
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Contents
D3 Representing and interpreting data
D3.1 Bar charts
D3.2 Pie charts
D3.3 Frequency diagrams
D3.4 Line graphs
D3.5 Scatter graphs
D3.6 Comparing data
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Frequency diagrams
Frequency diagrams are used to display grouped
continuous data.
For example, this frequency diagram shows the distribution of
heights in a group of Year 8 pupils:
Heights of Year 8 pupils
35
30
Frequency
25
20
The divisions
15
between the bars
10
5
are labelled.
0
140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175
Height (cm)
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Drawing frequency diagrams
Use the data in the frequency table to complete the frequency
diagram showing the time pupils spent watching TV on a
particular evening:
Time spent Number
(hours) of people
0≤h<1 4
1≤h<2 6
2≤h<3 8
3≤h<4 5
4≤h<5 3
h≤5 1
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Contents
D3 Representing and interpreting data
D3.1 Bar charts
D3.2 Pie charts
D3.3 Frequency diagrams
D3.4 Line graphs
D3.5 Scatter graphs
D3.6 Comparing data
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Line graphs
Line graphs are most often used to show trends over time.
For example, this line graph shows the temperature in
London, in ºC, over a 12-hour period.
Temperature in London
20
18
Temperature (ºC)
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
6 am 7 am 8 am 9 am 10 am 11 am 12 pm 1 pm 2 pm 3 pm 4 pm 5 pm 6 pm
Time
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Line graphs
This line graph compares the percentage of boys and girls
gaining A* to C passes at GCSE in a particular school.
Percentage of boys and girls gaining A* to C passes at GCSE
70
60
50
40
Girls
Boys
30
20
10
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
What trends are shown by this graph?
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Drawing line graphs
This data shows the weight of a child taken every birthday.
Plot the points on the graph and join them with straight lines.
Age Weight
(years) (kg)
1 9.5
2 12.0
3 14.2
4 16.3
5 18.4
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Contents
D3 Representing and interpreting data
D3.1 Bar charts
D3.2 Pie charts
D3.3 Frequency diagrams
D3.4 Line graphs
D3.5 Scatter graphs
D3.6 Comparing data
30 of 45 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
Scatter graphs
We can use scatter graphs to find out if there is any
relationship or correlation between two set of data.
Handspan (cm) 18 16 20 15 16 21 19 17 20 18
Foot length (cm) 24 21 28 20 22 30 25 22 27 23
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Scatter graphs and correlation
We can use scatter graphs to find out if there is any
relationship or correlation between two sets of data.
For example,
Do tall people weigh more than small people?
If there is more rain, will it be colder?
If you revise longer, will you get better marks?
Do second-hand car get cheaper with age?
Is more electricity used in cold weather?
Are people with big heads better at maths?
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Scatter graphs and correlation
When one variable increases as the other variable
increases, we have a positive correlation.
For example, this scatter
graph shows that there is a
Length of spring (cm)
strong positive correlation
between the length of a
spring and the mass of an
object attached to it.
The points lie close to an
upward sloping line.
This is the line of best fit.
Mass attached to spring (g)
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Scatter graphs and correlation
Sometimes the points in the graph are more scattered.
We can still see a trend upwards.
This scatter graph shows
that there is a weak
positive correlation
Science score
between scores in a maths
test and scores in a
science test.
The points are scattered
above and below a line of
best fit.
Maths score
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Scatter graphs and correlation
When one variable decreases as the other variable increases,
we have a negative correlation.
For example, this scatter
graph shows that there is a
strong negative
Temperature(°C)
correlation between
rainfall and hours of
sunshine.
The points lie close to a
downward sloping line of
best fit.
Rainfall (mm)
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Scatter graphs and correlation
Sometimes the points in the graph are more scattered.
We can still see a trend
downwards.
Outdoor temperature (ºC)
For example, this
scatter graph shows
that there is a weak
negative correlation
between the
temperature and the
amount of electricity
a family used.
Electricity used (kWh)
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Scatter graphs and correlation
Sometimes a scatter graph shows that there is no
correlation between two variables.
For example, this
scatter graph shows
Number of hours worked
that there is a no
correlation between
a person’s age and
the number of hours
they work a week.
The points are randomly
distributed.
Age (years)
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Plotting scatter graphs
This table shows the temperature on 10 days and the
number of ice creams a shop sold. Plot the scatter graph.
Temperature (°C) 14 16 20 19 23 21 25 22 18 18
Ice creams sold 10 14 20 22 19 22 30 15 16 19
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Plotting scatter graphs
We can use scatter graphs to find out if there is any
relationship or correlation between two set of data.
Hours watching TV 2 4 3.5 2 1.5 2.5 3 5 1 0.5
Hours doing homework 2.5 0.5 0.5 2 3 2 1 0 2 3
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Contents
D3 Representing and interpreting data
D3.1 Bar charts
D3.2 Pie charts
D3.3 Frequency diagrams
D3.4 Line graphs
D3.5 Scatter graphs
D3.6 Comparing data
40 of 45 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
Comparing distributions
The distribution of a set of data describes how the data is
spread out.
Two distributions can be compared using one of the three
averages and the range.
For example, the number of cars sold by two salesmen each
day for a week is shown below.
Matt 5 7 6 5 7 8 6
Jamie 3 6 4 8 12 9 8
Who is the better salesman?
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Comparing distributions
Matt 5 7 6 5 7 8 6
Jamie 3 6 4 8 12 9 8
To decide which salesman is best let’s compare the mean
number cars sold by each one.
Matt:
5+7+6+5+7+8+6 44
Mean = = = 6.3 (to 1 d.p.)
7 7
Jamie:
3 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 12 + 9 + 8 50
Mean = = = 7.1 (to 1 d.p.)
7 7
This tells us that, on average, Jamie sold more cars each day.
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Comparing distributions
Matt 5 7 6 5 7 8 6
Jamie 3 6 4 8 12 9 8
Now let’s compare the range for each salesman.
Matt: Range = 8 – 5 = 3
Jamie: Range = 12 – 3 = 9
The range for the number of cars sold each day is smaller for
Matt. This means that he is a more consistent or reliable
salesman.
We could argue that Jamie is better because he sells more
on average, or that Matt is better because he is more
consistent.
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Comparing the shape of distributions
We can comparing distributions by looking at the shape of
their graphs.
This distribution This distribution
is symmetrical is skewed to
(or normal). the left.
This distribution This distribution
is skewed to is random.
the right.
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Comparing the shape of distributions
Four groups of pupils sat the same maths test. These graphs
show the results.
Group A Group B Group C Group D
Frequency
Frequency
Frequency
Frequency
1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50
One of the groups is a top set, one is a middle set, one is a
bottom set and one is a mixed ability group.
Use the shapes of the distribution to decide which
group is which giving reasons for your choice.
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