22 Working scientifically

Presenting data
Data is the information you collect from experiments. It often consists
of numbers such as measurements. Organizing data into tables, charts,
or graphs helps you make sense of it and spot patterns. The kind of
chart or graph you use depends on the kind of data you collect.

Independent Dependent variable

variable
Tables
Tables are useful for organizing Acceleration (m/s2)
Mass added to
data and for doing simple cart (kg)
calculations, such as working 1st run 2nd run 3rd run Mean
out mean (average) values.
This table shows results from 0.5 9.9 10.2 10.1 10.1
an experiment investigating
1.0 6.8 8.8 6.6 6.7
how mass added to a cart affects
its acceleration. 1.5 5.2 4.8 5.1 5.0

Tables help us spot “outliers.” These are very

different from the other values and may be mistakes.
This value was ignored when calculating the mean.

Pie charts Food, drink, Other artificial sources,

and water 9% including nuclear tests and
Use a pie chart to show nuclear power plants 0.5%
percentages or relative
Cosmic
amounts. For example, radiation 13%
this pie chart shows
estimates of different Radon 42%
sources of background Soil and
radiation that people are buildings 16%
exposed to worldwide. Medical
treatment 19.5%

Bar charts
Use a bar chart when the
independent variable is made Label the The dependent variable is
usually shown on the y-axis.
up of discrete (separate) axis and give
categories. For example, this the unit.
bar chart shows how much 12 000
energy different groups of
Average energy
required (kJ)

people need each day. You

should also use a bar chart 8000
when the independent variable
consists of discrete values,
4000
such as numbers of people
or numbers of objects (which
are always counted in The independent 0
whole numbers). variable is usually
Age 5 Age 11 Age 18 Adult
shown on the x-axis. Age range