Intro to Stats

Representations of Data

(Independent Study)
This Chapter Overview
We’ve seen so far how data is collected and calculations can be made. We now
concentrate on how the processed data can be displayed.

BOX PLOTS AND OUTLIERS CUMULATIVE FREQ DIAGRAMS

Cumulative Frequency
*NEW since GCSE!* Outliers.

Height
HISTOGRAMS

*NEW since GCSE!* Area is

not necessarily equal to
frequency.
Forming a frequency
polygon by joining
midpoints.
Box Plot recap
Box Plots allow us to visually represent the distribution of the data.

Minimum Lower Quartile Median Upper Quartile Maximum

3 15 17 22 27

Sketch Sketch Sketch Sketch Sketch

range

IQR

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

How is the IQR represented Sketch How is the range Sketch

in this diagram? represented in this diagram?
Interpreting a Box Plot

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Age (years)

True or false: (click your answer)

“The right box represents more
False True
people than the left box.”
Each box represents 25% of people,
i.e. the same number of people!

“The ages are more spread out

False True
above the median.”
The wider the box or whisker, the more spread out the values
are within that 25% of the data. We’d say that the data has
“positive skew”, but you are not required to know this term.
Outliers
An outlier is: ? value.
an extreme
Outliers beyond
this point

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

One common definition of an outlier is when we’re

1.5 IQRs beyond the lower and upper quartiles.
(But you will be told in the exam if the rule differs from this)
Examples
The diameters of 11 different Roman coins are measured in centimetres:
2.2 2.5 2.7 2.7 2.8 3.0 3.1 3.1 3.2 4.0 4.7
Determine the quartiles and hence any outliers.

3rd item 9th item

Lower outlier boundary ?

Upper outlier boundary
Therefore outliers are 4.0cm and 4.7cm.

[Textbook] The lengths, in cm, of 12 giant African land snails are given below:
17 18 18 19 20 20 20 20 21 23 24 32
a) Calculate the mean and standard deviation, given that and .
b) An outlier is an observation which lies standard deviations from the mean. Identify
any outliers for this data.
Context: Recall that the standard deviation is, roughly speaking, the
average distance of each value from the mean. So the outlier
Outlier boundaries: definition is saying we’re at least twice this average distance, which

Outlier is just 32.

?a seems like a sensible definition.
In Year 2, you will encounter the normal distribution, which can be
used to model data which is clustered about some mean and tails off
symmetrical in either direction. If this data was approximately
normally distributed, then there is a 5% chance a random observation

?b would fall outside 2 standard deviations within the mean. You will
learn then how to make such probability calculations.
Test Your Understanding
The ages of 15 Lib Dem MPs are given:
11 18 20 27 30 31 32 32 35 36 37 58 63 78 105
a) If an outlier is considered to be 1.5 interquartile ranges below the lower
quartile or above the upper quartile, determine any outliers.
b) If instead an outlier is considered to be outside 2 standard deviations within
the mean, determine any outliers. Note that and

Boundaries:
?a
Therefore the 105 year old is an outlier.

Boundaries:

Therefore the 105 year old is an outlier.

?b
Box Plot Example
Smallest values Largest values Lower Quartile Median Upper Quartile
0, 3 21, 27 8 10 14

Draw a box plot to represent the above data.

Outlier boundaries: Fro Exam Tip: You MUST show your

? outlier boundary calculations.

When there’s an outlier at one end,

Use a cross for there’s two allowable places to put
each outlier. the end of the whisker:
The maximum value not an
outlier, 21 (I think this one
? makes most sense).

OR the outlier
boundary, 23.
Use one or the other
(not both).
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Test Your Understanding

(c) The company claims that for 75%

of the months, the amount received
per month is greater than £10 000.
Comment on this claim, giving a
reason for your answer. (2)
a?
c?
Comparing Box Plots

Box Plot comparing house prices of Croydon and Kingston-upon-Thames:

Croydon

Kingston

£400k £450k £500k £550k £600k £650k £700k £750k

“Compare the prices of houses in Croydon with those in Kingston”. (2 marks)

For 1 mark, one of: For 1 mark:
•In interquartile range of house prices in “The median house price in Kingston was
Kingston is greater than Croydon. greater than that in Croydon.”
•The range of house prices in Kingston is
greater than Croydon.? ?
Include some measure of location (median is best).
Include some measure of spread.
Exercise 3A Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Exercise 3A Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Exercise 3B Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Exercise 3B Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Supplementary Questions:

(Solutions to (d) and (e) on next

slide)

?
Supplementary Questions:

?
Supplementary Questions: (on your printed sheet)

? 45

5 52 63
12 17 28

?
?
 Cumulative Frequency Diagrams
Time (s) Frequency Cum Freq These graphs are intended to show
the running total of people/things
9.6 < t ≤ 9.7 1 1 Plot up to a particular value, and are
9.7 < t ≤ 9.9 4 5 Plot particularly useful in estimating
32 the median and quartiles.
9.9 < t ≤ 10.05 10 15 Plot
28 10.05 < t ≤ 10.2 17 32 Plot Estimate of 10.07s ?
Cumulative Frequency

24
Estimate of 9.95s ?
20
Estimate of 10.13s ?
16

12 Interquartile Range
8 ?
= 0.18s

0
9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3
Time (s)
 Cumulative Frequency Diagrams

Estimate how many

32 runners had a time less
than 10.15s.
28
? runners
26
Cumulative Frequency

24
Estimate how many
20 runners had a time more
than 9.95
16
32 – ?
8 = 24 runners
12
Estimate how many
8 runners had a time
between 9.8s and 10s
4
11 –?3 = 8 runners
0
9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3
Time (s)
Exercise 3C Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Histograms
Age (years) Frequency Pablo is hosting a party. He counts how many
people are between 15 and 20, and 20 and 50.
15
Why is below graph somewhat unhelpful.
15 How could we fix it?

Click to Start
Fro-animation
Frequency

15
The 15 people in the
second group are more
spread out in age, but
this graph seems to
suggest that people’s
ages are spread out
uniformly between 15
and 50.

10 20 30 40 50
Age
 Let’s presume that within each age group, the
Age (years) Frequency ages are evenly spread.
15 ≤ a < 20 15 Then there would ? 3 people of each age in
20 ≤ a < 50 15 the 15-20 group, and 0.5? people of each
age in the 20-50 group.

Click to Start
3 Fro-animation
Estimated Frequency

The resulting diagram is known as a histogram; it allows us to

Frequency Density

display the ‘concentration’ (i.e. density) of people per unit value.

2 The ‘frequency per age’ is known as the ‘frequency density’. In
general, given the frequency and class width, we can calculate it
using: Frequency
Frequency Density = ?
Class Width
1

10 20 30 40 50
Age
 Bar Charts vs Histograms
Histograms
Bar Charts ? data.
• For continuous
? data.
• For discrete • Data divided into (potentially
• Frequency given by uneven) intervals.
? of bars.
height • [GCSE definition] Frequency
? of bars.*
given by area
• No gaps between bars.

Frequency Density
Use this as a reason
Frequency

whenever you’re asked to

justify use of a histogram.

6 7 8 9 1.0m 1.2m 1.4m 1.6m 1.8m

Shoe Size Height
* Not necessarily true. We’ll correct this in a sec.
Bar Charts vs Histograms
Q1 Still using the incorrect
GCSE formula:
Weight (w kg) Frequency Frequency Density
0 < w ≤ 10 40 4
?
10 < w ≤ 15 6 1.2
? Freq
15 < w ≤ 35 52 ? 2.6
35 < w ≤ 45 10 ? 1 F.D. Width

Q2 Frequency = 40?
5 Frequency = 15?
Frequency = 25?
Frequency Density

3
?
Frequency = 30

10 20 30 40 50
Height (m)
 SKILL #1 :: Area = frequency?
Unlike at GCSE, the area of a bar is not necessarily equal to the frequency; there are just proportional.

! Identify the scaling using a known area with known frequency (which may be total
area/frequency or just one bar)

There were 60 runners in a 100m race. The following histogram represents

their times. Determine the number of runners with times above 14s.

5 Total frequency is known; therefore

find total area and hence the ‘scaling’.
4
Frequency Density

Total area = 15 + 9 = 24
3 Area Freq ?

2
Then use this scaling along
with the desired area.
1

0
9 12 18 Frequency ?
Time (s)
Test Your Understanding (on your printed sheet)

Edexcel S1 May 2012 Q5

A policeman records the speed of the traffic on a busy road with a 30 mph speed limit. He records
the speeds of a sample of 450 cars. The histogram in Figure 2 represents the results.
 (a) Calculate the number of cars that were exceeding the speed limit by at least 5 mph in the
sample. (4 marks)
Fro Tip: We can make the frequency
M1 A1: Determine what one
density scale what we like.
small square or one large
7 square is worth.
6 (i.e. work out scaling)
Area Freq 450
5 ?𝑘= 112.5
=4
4
M1 A1: Use this to find number
3 of cars travelling >35mph.
2 Area Freq

1 ?
Write:
Test Your Understanding (on your printed sheet)

(b) Estimate the value of the mean speed of the cars in the sample. (3 marks)

M1 M1: Use histogram to

construct sum of speeds.

30× 12.5+240 ×25 +…

?
450

A1 Correct value

¿ 28.8
?

Fro Tip: Whenever you are asked to

calculate mean, median or quartiles
from a histogram, form a grouped
frequency table. Use your scaling factor
to work out the frequency of each bar.
Test Your Understanding (on your printed sheet)

(c) Estimate, to 1 decimal place, the value of the median speed of the cars in the sample.(2)
(d) Comment on the shape of the distribution. Give a reason for your answer. (2)
(e) State, with a reason, whether the estimate of the mean or the median is a better
representation of the average speed of the traffic on the road. (2)
(crossed out questions would not appear in new syllabus)

?
 SKILL #2 :: Gaps!
Weight Frequency F.D.
(to nearest kg) Note the gaps
affects class width!
1-2 ? Remember the
3-6 ? frequency density axis
7-9 ? ? is only correct to scale,
so there may be some
For simplicity we can set the scaling scaling. However in an
between area and frequency to be 1. exam scaling is unlikely
to be required for F.D.
if the F.D. scale is
Frequency Density

2 already given.

1
?

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time (s)
 Test Your Understanding (on your printed sheet)
Jan 2012 Q1

Fro Tip: Be careful that you

use the correct class widths!

?
14

5
?

21 + 45 + 3?= 69
SKILL #3 :: Width and height on diagram
An exam favourite is to ask what width and height we’d draw a bar in a drawn histogram.

Q: The frequency table shows some running times. Time (seconds) Frequency
On a histogram the bar for 0-4 seconds is drawn with
width 6cm and height 8cm. Find the width and height
of the bar for 4-6 seconds.

! Bro Tip: Find the scaling for class width to drawn width and frequency density to
drawn height. Strategy ?
For 0-4 bar:
Class width
Frequency density
Scaling for width: 1.5
Scaling for height: 4
Solution ?
4-6 bar: class width 2, frequency density 4.5
Test Your Understanding (on your printed sheet)

?
SKILL #4 :: Forming a frequency polygon
Recall that a frequency polygon can be drawn by using the midpoint of each interval.
This corresponds to the midpoint of the top of each bar in a histogram.

Click to Sketch

Note that the frequency in this interval is 0. That

needs to be reflected in the frequency polygon.
Exercise 3D Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Exercise 3D Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Exercise 3D Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Exercise 3D Your solutions should be filed in your Stats Portfolio
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q1

?
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q2

? is continuous
Answer: Distance

Note that gaps in the class intervals!

4 / 5 = 0.8
19 / 5 = 3.8 ?
53 / 10 = 5.3
...
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q3

?
?

?
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q4 [June 2007 Q5]

?
?
?

?
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q5

?
?
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q6

?
?

?
?
Supplementary Exercise (on your printed sheet)

Q7

a? c?
d?
b?
e?