GRADE 11 – Representation of

STATISTICS AND Data: Stem-and-

PROBABILITY Leaf Diagrams
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
Construct a stem-and-leaf diagram from raw data
Make comparison between two sets of data by using stem-and-lead
diagrams

Key terms:
Raw data
Stem-and-leaf diagram
A LEVEL MATHEMATICS - UNIT S1:
PROBABILITY & STATISTICS 1 (PAPER 6)

1. Representation of data
🢝 select a suitable way of presenting raw statistical data, and discuss advantages and/or
disadvantages that particular representations may have;

🢝 construct and interpret stem-and-leaf diagrams, box-and-whisker plots, histograms and

cumulative frequency graphs;
PRESENTING RAW
STATISTICAL DATA

Presenting Data

Stem-and-leaf Cumulative Box-and-whisker

Histograms
diagrams frequency graphs plots (Chapter 3)
STEM-AND-LEAF DIAGRAMS
a simple way of showing a set of data graphically.
formed by splitting each data value into two parts. The first part of the
orms the stem and the second part, the leaf.
number f Example: A group of 25 people took part in a general
knowledge quiz. Their scores are recorded below
22, 47, 43, 38, 52, 45, 43, 29, 49, 35, 37, 48, 17,
61, 50, 48, 42, 34, 37, 40, 45, 57, 38, 54, 29

Each number naturally splits into 2 parts – the tens

digit and the units digit.
Do questions no 1 and 2 of Exercise 1A on page
8 0 4 6 (2)
No. 2
1 2 5 8 (3)
2 1 5 5 5 7 8 9 (7)
3 0 2 4 6 7 (5)
4 1 3 (2)
5 2 (1)

Key: 1 | 2 means 12
k.p.h
It is sometimes necessary to split the contents of each leaf over two
ows.
rExample: The times (in seconds) taken to run the 400m by
20 female competitors in the 2004 Olympic Games were:
50.2, 51.5, 50.2, 51.0, 50.5, 51.4, 51.3, 52.2, 50.0, 50.6, 52.0,
51.8, 51.6, 51.2, 51.9, 50.1, 49.9, 52.6, 51.4, 51.6.
49 | 9 means 49.9 secs
49 9
These values can be plotted in a stem-
50 0 1 2 2
and-leaf diagram: 50 5 6
51 0 2 3 4 4
When splitting rows, the top row should
51 5 6 6 8 9
contain the digits 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Higher
52 0 2
digits are put on the second row.
52 6
Stem-and-leaf diagrams can be used to compare two sets of data. The back-to-
back stem-and-leaf diagram shown below compares the height of 15 boys and
14 girls from a form group.
Key: 15 4 ans 154 cm
me
A stem-and-leaf
Girls 14 Boys diagram
9 7 7 5 2 15 4 4 5 comparing the
5 4 3 2 0 0 16 1 3 3 8 heights of pupils
6 in a form group
0 17 0 2 3
5
The diagram shows that the boys 18in 2
the 4form group are typically taller
than the girls. The heights of the19
boys0 are also more varied than the girls’
heights.
The number of minutes taken to complete an exercise was recorded for 15
boys and 15 girls in a class.

Boys: 16, 27, 28, 22, 34, 18, 11, 19, 27, 31, 27, 36, 22, 17, 29

Girls: 12, 23, 22, 17, 30, 16, 15, 14, 17, 37, 26, 24, 21, 12, 27

Show this information as a back-to-back stem-and-leaf diagram.