Exercise 1C Displaying and describing the distributions of numerical

variables
Frequency tables
The grouped frequency distribution
Example 1: Grouped frequency table
The data below show the distribution of masses (in kilograms) of 60 students in Year 7 at
Northwood Secondary College. Construct a frequency histogram to display the data more
clearly.
45.7 45.8 45.9 48.2 48.3 48.4 34.2 52.4 52.3 51.8 45.7 56.8 56.3 60.2 44.2 53.8 43.5 57.2
38.7 48.5 49.6 56.9 43.8 58.3 52.4 54.3 48.6 53.7 58.7 57.6 45.7 39.8 42.5 42.9 59.2 53.2
48.2 36.2 47.2 46.7 58.7 53.1 52.1 54.3 51.3 51.9 54.6 58.7 58.7 39.7 43.1 56.2 43.0 56.3
62.3 46.3 52.4 61.2 48.2 58.3

30-<35
35-<40

How has
How has forming
forming aa frequency
frequency table
table helped?
helped?
Theprocess
The processofofforming
forming a frequency
a frequency table
table for afor a numerical
numerical variable:
variable:

•• orders
ordersthethedata
datadisplays the data in a compact form
•• tells us how
displays thethe data
data invalues are distributed
a compact form across the categories
•• helps us how
tells us identithe data values are distributed across the categories
• helps us identify the mode (the most frequently occurring value or interval).
 The histogram and its construction
The histogram is a graphical display of the information in the grouped frequency table.

Constructing
Constructing a histogram
a histogram from
from a frequency
a frequency table
table
In In a frequency histogram:
a frequency histogram:
• frequency (count or per cent) is shown on the vertical axis
• frequency (count or per cent) is shown on the vertical axis
• the values of the variable being displayed are plotted on the horizontal axis
• the values of the variable being displayed are plotted on the horizontal axis
• each bar in a histogram corresponds to a data interval
• each bar in a histogram corresponds to a data interval
• the height of the bar gives the frequency (or the percentage frequency).
• the height of the bar gives the frequency (or the percentage frequency).
• There are no gaps between the bars

Example 2: Constructing a histogram from a frequency table (continuous

grouped data)
no gaps in
between bars

When constructing a histogram to represent continuous data, as in example 1, the bars will sit
between two values on the horizontal axis which represent the class intervals.
Discrete data
Example 3: Constructing a frequency table for discrete data
The number of brothers and sisters (siblings) reported by each of the 30 students in year 11
are as follows:

Construct a frequency table for these data.

Example 4: Constructing a histogram for discrete data
The marks out of 20 received by 30 students for a book-review assignment are given in the
frequency table.

When dealing with discrete data the bars should appear above the middle of the value
they’re representing.