6.

5 Cumulative Frequency
Cumulative Frequency of a data or a class interval in a frequency table is obtained by
determining the sum of its frequency with the total frequencies of all its previous data or class
interval.
(A) Ogive
Ogive is a cumulative frequency graph which is obtained by plotting the cumulative frequency
against the upper boundaries of each class.
Example:
The data below shows the number of books read by a group of 60 students in a year.
Books

Frequency

6-10

11-15

16-20

11

21-25

16

26-30

11

31-35

36-40

(a) Construct a cumulative frequency table for the given data.

(b) By using the scales of 2cm to 5 books on the horizontal axis and 2cm
to 10 students on the vertical axis, draw an ogive for the data.
Solution:
(a)
Add a class with frequency 0 before the first class.
Find the upper boundary of each class interval.

Books

Frequency

Cumulative
Frequency

Upper Boundary

1-5

5.5

6-10

0+3=3

10.5

11-15

3 + 7 = 10

15.5

16-20

11

10 + 11 = 21

20.5

21-25

16

21 + 16 = 37

25.5

26-30

11

37 + 11 = 48

30.5

31-35

48 + 8 = 56

35.5

36-40

56 + 4 = 60

40.5

(b)

6.6 Measures of Dispersion

(A) Determine the range of a set of data

1. For an ungrouped data,
Range = largest value smallest value.
2. For a grouped data,
Range = midpoint of the last class midpoint of the first class.
Example 1:
Determine the range of the following data.
(a) 720, 840, 610, 980, 900
(b)
Time (minutes)
Frequency

16
3

7 12
5

13 18
9

Solution:
(a)
Largest value of the data = 980
Smallest value of data = 610
Range = 980 610 = 370
(b)
Midpoint of the last class
= (25 + 30) minutes
= 27.5 minute

Midpoint of the first class

= (1 + 6) minutes
= 3.5 minute

Range = (27.5 3.5) minute = 24 minutes

(B) Medians and Quartiles

19 24
4

25 30
4

1. The first quartile (Q1) is a number such that [Math Processing Error]14 of the total
number of data that has a value less than the number.
2. The median is the second quartile which is the value that lies at the centre of the data.
3. The third quartile (Q3) is a number such that [Math Processing Error]34of the total
number of data that has a value less than the number.
4. The interquartile range is the difference between the third quartile and the first
quartile.

Interquartile range = third quartile first quartile

Example 2:

The ogive in the diagram shows the distribution of time (to the nearest second) taken by
100 students in a swimming competition. From the ogive, determine
(a) the median,
(b) the first quartile,
(c) the third quartile
(d) the interquartile range
of the time taken.

Solution:

(d)
Interquartile range
= Third quartile First quartile
= 54.5 44.5
= 10.0 second