Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Numbers
Data Analysis and
Probability
Mathematics in Context is a comprehensive curriculum for the middle grades.
It was developed in 1991 through 1997 in collaboration with the Wisconsin Center
for Education Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison and
the Freudenthal Institute at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, with the
support of the National Science Foundation Grant No. 9054928.
The revision of the curriculum was carried out in 2003 through 2005, with the
support of the National Science Foundation Grant No. ESI 0137414.
Boswinkel, N., Niehaus, J., Gravemeijer, K., Wijers, M., Dekker, T., Middleton, J. A.,
Spence, M. S., Burrill, G., & Milinkovic, J. (2006). Picturing numbers. In Wisconsin
Center for Education Research & Freudenthal Institute (Eds.), Mathematics in
Context. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
This work is protected under current U.S. copyright laws, and the performance,
display, and other applicable uses of it are governed by those laws. Any uses not
in conformity with the U.S. copyright statute are prohibited without our express
written permission, including but not limited to duplication, adaptation, and
transmission by television or other devices or processes. For more information
regarding a license, write Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 331 North LaSalle Street,
Chicago, Illinois 60610.
ISBN 0-03-042402-X
1 2 3 4 5 6 073 09 08 07 06 05
The Mathematics in Context Development Team
Development 1991–1997
The initial version of Picturing Numbers was developed by Nina Boswinkel, Jansie Niehaus,
and Koeno Gravemeijer. It was adapted for use in American schools by James A, Middleton,
Mary S. Spence, Gail Burrill, and Jasmina Milinkovic.
Project Staff
Jonathan Brendefur Sherian Foster Mieke Abels Jansie Niehaus
Laura Brinker James A, Middleton Nina Boswinkel Nanda Querelle
James Browne Jasmina Milinkovic Frans van Galen Anton Roodhardt
Jack Burrill Margaret A. Pligge Koeno Gravemeijer Leen Streefland
Rose Byrd Mary C. Shafer Marja van den Heuvel-Panhuizen
Peter Christiansen Julia A. Shew Jan Auke de Jong Adri Treffers
Barbara Clarke Aaron N. Simon Vincent Jonker Monica Wijers
Doug Clarke Marvin Smith Ronald Keijzer Astrid de Wild
Beth R. Cole Stephanie Z. Smith Martin Kindt
Fae Dremock Mary S. Spence
Mary Ann Fix
Revision 2003–2005
The revised version of Picturing Numbers was developed by Monica Wijers and Truus Dekker.
It was adapted for use in American schools by Gail Burrill.
Project Staff
Sarah Ailts Margaret R. Meyer Arthur Bakker Nathalie Kuijpers
Beth R. Cole Anne Park Peter Boon Huub Nilwik
Erin Hazlett Bryna Rappaport Els Feijs Sonia Palha
Teri Hedges Kathleen A. Steele Dédé de Haan Nanda Querelle
Karen Hoiberg Ana C. Stephens Martin Kindt Martin van Reeuwijk
Carrie Johnson Candace Ulmer
Jean Krusi Jill Vettrus
Elaine McGrath
(c) 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Mathematics in Context
and the Mathematics in Context Logo are registered trademarks
of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Illustrations
v Christine McCabe/© Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; 1 Holly Cooper-Olds;
6 Christine McCabe/© Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; 26, 28, 37, 41 Holly
Cooper-Olds
Photographs
1 © Corbis; 3 © Louis K. Meisel Gallery, Inc./Corbis; 4 Sam Dudgeon/HRW;
7 © Bettmann/Corbis; 10 Victoria Smith/HRW; 11 © Corbis; 12 Victoria
Smith/HRW; 13 (left to right) © Corbis; Sam Dudgeon/HRW; 16 © Corbis;
17 (left to right) © Comstock, Inc.; Allan Munsie/Alamy; Jenny Thomas
Photography/HRW Photo; 19 © Corel; 21 © Brand X Pictures; (left to right)
© Corbis; © Joe McDonald/Corbis; 25 Fotosonline/Alamy; 29 © Corbis;
32 © Annie Griffiths Belt/Corbis; 35, 36 © Corbis; 38 Dennis MacDonald/
Alamy; 39 © Corbis; 40 © PhotoDisc/Getty Images
Contents
Letter to the Student vi
Fuel Gauges 10
How People Spend Their Vacation 11 North
Data Collection 12
Ways of Traveling to School 13 15%
Television Programs 16 9%
12%
Summary 18 3%
Rainfall
10 300
–10 100
Temperature 32
–20 0
Three Sports Clubs 38 J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month
Combining Graphs 39
Summary 42
Check Your Work 42
Additional Practice 44
Contents v
Dear Student,
Sincerely,
vi Picturing Numbers
A
Using Bar Graphs
Fliers
The number of whales in the world is
decreasing rapidly. Peter, Carmenza,
and Ann want to do something about the
situation. They earn money by delivering
advertising fliers to people’s houses. For
every flier they deliver, they get five cents,
which they donate to the World Wildlife
Fund.
Today, Peter delivered 100 fliers, Carmenza 200, and Ann 50.
1. How much money did the three of them earn?
Helen, Amber, John, and Diego also delivered fliers. In the table, you
can see how many each of them delivered.
2. How many fliers were delivered in total?
Number of Fliers
Delivered 100 200 50 50 100 250 250
Peter showed the information about the number of fliers in the graph
below. He called his display a one-bar graph.
100
50
0
er enz
a
An
n
Joh
n
ber len igo
Pet rm Am He De
Ca
Students
A bar graph has two axes, a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. In this
graph, the vertical axis shows you how many fliers were delivered.
The horizontal axis shows you who delivered them. A graph needs
labels and a title in order to tell its story.
You could also make a bar graph showing how much money each
student earned.
5. a. What would this graph look like?
b. How would it compare to the graph showing the number of
fliers delivered?
2 Picturing Numbers
Using Bar Graphs A
Marbles
Bar graphs can be used to compare sizes or
amounts of different things. On this graph,
the horizontal axis identifies the things that
are being compared (students). The vertical
axis tells how many (marbles).
Students’ Marbles
50
Number of Marbles
40
30
20
10
0
Steve
Rosalie
Mark
Peter
Alice
Jane
Helen
Monica
Students
Here you can see that Steve has five marbles. Suppose you also
know that:
• Rosalie has twice as many marbles as Steve.
• Mark has four times as many marbles as Rosalie.
• Peter has four marbles more than Steve.
• Alice has as many marbles as Steve.
• Jane has five fewer marbles than Rosalie.
• Helen lost all of the marbles she had.
• Monica has as many marbles as Rosalie.
Jose found another way to show how many marbles each person
has. Look at his drawing called a picture graph.
Steve
Rosalie
How Long?
Elena is sure she can stand on one foot a
really long time. She challenges Tomas,
and he agrees to see who can stand longer.
But he says they have to stand on one foot
with their eyes shut!
9. Reflect Do you think it makes a
difference whether their eyes are
open or closed? Why or why not?
4 Picturing Numbers
Have a classmate record how many seconds you can stand on one
foot with your eyes shut. Write the number of seconds on a self-stick
note. Then time how long a classmate can do this.
One way to picture data for your class is by recording the data on a
number line. Your teacher has made a number line on the board.
Tape your self-stick note at the appropriate spot on the number line.
This way of picturing numbers is called a number-line plot or
dot plot.
Use the number-line plot your class made on the board to answer
questions 10–13.
10. a. Describe how long the students in your class can stand on one
foot with their eyes closed.
b. What times seem to be the most common?
c. What is the range of times in your class?
13. Complete the graph on Student Activity Sheet 2, using the data
from your table. Note that the bars in this graph should be drawn
next to each other. The widths of all bars should be equal.
Your graph will look different from the graph made with the self-stick
notes.
14. Reflect Explain how the new graph is different. What advantages
does this graph have over the number-line plot?
What disadvantages?
Suppose you are a gymnastics coach and are looking for students
who have very good balance.
15. Write a short report about the length of time students in your class
can stand on one foot with their eyes closed.
Litter
Do you ever think about how long garbage lasts if left on its own to
decay? Peter, Carmenza, and Ann found this information on the
Internet.
Leather 50 years
6 Picturing Numbers
Using Bar Graphs A
“Let’s draw a large bar graph for our classroom to make the
students aware of this problem,” Peter suggests.
16. Reflect Explain why Peter’s idea is not a good one.
17. How would you make a poster to help your classmates think
twice before they throw anything away? Use the information
from the table.
18. Find two examples of data, not mentioned in this section, that can
be presented in:
i. a bar graph;
ii. a number line graph.
Math History
Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
Benjamin Banneker was a self-educated scientist, astronomer,
inventor, and writer. He was one of the first African-Americans to
gain distinction in science, and he used this distinction to campaign
against slavery.
When Banneker was 21 years old, he took apart a neighbor’s pocket
watch, drew all its pieces, and put it back together. He then carved a
large wooden replica of each piece and made a clock. The clock
worked, striking each hour for more than 40 years.
In 1773, Banneker began making astronomical calculations that
enabled him to successfully forecast a 1789 solar eclipse.
250
200
150
100
50
0
Peter Carmenza Ann John Amber Helen Diego
Students
8 Picturing Numbers
1. a. Find a bar graph in a newspaper or magazine and describe
what it shows.
b. Can the data you found be presented in a different way? How?
Football 4 8
Basketball 6 6
Tennis 8 3
Swimming 3 2
Other 4 6
3. Use the data presented in the table to create bar graphs that
compare the favorite sports of sixth graders and seventh graders.
d. e. f.
1. Gas tank a is half full. How full is each of the other tanks?
10 Picturing Numbers
A Piece of the Pie B
17 sor r
Family/Friends
30%
7. About how many people surveyed said
Stay at
Home they visit friends or family while on
Travel/
21%
Sightsee vacation?
26%
8. Reflect Graphs like the one shown on
Random sample of 686 adults.
this page are called pie charts. Why do
you think they are called pie charts?
Data Collection
The data expressed in graphs are often
gathered by means of a survey. In a survey,
people are asked questions about an issue,
and their answers are tallied. A pie chart
may be used to present the results of a
survey.
Students at Lakeside Middle School
surveyed a random group of 60 students.
Here are some results.
Question I
How Do You Get to School? Question II
What Is Your Favorite Drink?
Answers
Bus ........................ 30 people Answers
Foot ....................... 14 people Cola ...................... 1
3
of the group
Bike ......................... 8 people Lemonade ............. 1 of the group
6
Car .......................... 8 people
Grape Drink ........... 1
4
of the group
4 12 60 10
10. a. Choose a circle on Student Activity Sheet 4 that will help you
make a pie chart for question I. Use the circle to make a pie
chart for question 1.
b. Do the same for question II.
c. Describe the results of the survey.
12 Picturing Numbers
Like the students at Lakeside Middle School, you are going to collect
data. The data you collect in this activity will be used throughout the
rest of the unit.
Instructions
For each category on Student Activity Sheet 5, circle the word or
phrase that fits you best.
When everyone in the class has finished, cut out all of the squares
and place them in ballot boxes—one ballot box for each question.
When you come to appropriate places in the unit, you can then use
the data from each question.
Angela: Brian:
Mr. Ramirez decided to survey the students to find out how they get
to school. He wants to know what part of the student body comes to
school in a car and what part takes the bus. Here are the responses to
his survey question.
11. Organize the data that Mr. Ramirez collected in a new table that
makes it easier to understand.
Transportation to School The pie chart displays the information from the table in
another way.
13. Look at the pie chart. Does it tell you the same thing
Foot
Bus the table does? Why or why not?
Bicycle 14. a. Compare the bar graph you made to the pie chart.
Car Which would you use to settle the disagreement
between Brian and Angela? Why?
b. Could you use a number-line plot to show the
data? Why or why not?
14 Picturing Numbers
A Piece of the Pie B
The bus company has decided to change its school route unless at
least 25% of the students ride a bus to school.
15. Does Mr. Ramirez’s class meet the 25% rule of the bus company?
Why or why not?
After the discussion in Mr. Ramirez’s class, Arden, Susan, Steve, and
Martin decide to take the bus to school.
16. a. What percentage of the class will now ride the bus to school?
Will the bus company change the school route?
b. Reflect The bus company wants to increase the number of
students riding the bus. What are some reasons for riding the
bus that the company could give to students and families?
Take out the data you collected about the ways in which students in
your class get to school.
17. a. Does your class data meet the 25% rule of the bus company?
b. Do you think you have enough information to provide a picture of
how many students in your whole school ride the bus? Explain.
Television Programs
A television network wants to know
what kinds of programs people like to
watch the most. To find out, they hired
a company who took a survey of about
1,000 people. People chose the kinds
of programs shown on this page.
Television Viewer Preferences The pie chart shows the survey results.
19. a. Estimate the fraction of people who prefer programs
News and for children.
Information
b. About how many people is this?
Programs
Movies and c. In your notebook, copy and complete the table
Entertainment below. Use the pie chart to help you.
for Children
Sports
20. Compare the network’s survey results to your class results. What
are the similarities and differences?
16 Picturing Numbers
A Piece of the Pie B
21. In your own words, explain what a stacked bar graph is.
22. Match each stacked bar graph with the pie chart that tells the
same story. Be ready to explain your choices.
a b
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3 c d
Class 4
Favorite Sports
23. Examine the data you collected in class about
Soccer Softball favorite sports. Make a pie chart, a bar graph,
or a stacked bar graph of your data.
Basketball Skating
Bicycling Volleyball
24. Reflect What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each of these three kinds
of graphs? Which graph did you use? Why?
In this section, you studied pie charts, bar graphs, and stacked bar
graphs. A pie chart is a circle divided into sections or “pieces of pie.”
Each piece represents a category of data. The size of the piece shows
the fraction or percent that category is of the whole pie. Each piece of
the pie chart is labeled, or a legend next to it shows what is meant by
each piece. Don’t forget the title!
New Eastland Students’ Favorite Performers
Valhalla Legend
Alternatives 25,000 votes or 36%
Alternatives José Garcia 15,000 votes or 21%
The Smashers
The Smashers 20,000 votes or 29%
A stacked bar graph is a bar that represents the entire amount. The
bar is divided into parts showing the fraction or part for the different
categories making up the total amount.
Alternatives
José Garcia
The Smashers
Valhalla
Graphs tell a story about the data they represent. Different graphs
represent data in different ways, so they tell different stories. The type
of graph you use depends on what you want to say about a situation.
18 Picturing Numbers
The two graphs represent the results
of a survey on the kinds of pets people
prefer.
Favorite Pets
30
25
Number of People
Favorite Pets
20
15 Other
Dogs
Birds
10
Fish
5 Cats
0
Dogs Fish Cats Birds Other
Pets
1. Reflect Can the two graphs represent the same data? Explain
why or why not.
Computer Games
Tilings 98 15
Island 73 11
3. a. Create a graph that tells the story of these data. Explain why
you used the graph you did.
b. Which computer game is the most popular one? How is this
shown in your graph?
20 Picturing Numbers
C
A Picture is Worth a
Thousand Words
Your Profession
Raisa thinks about growing up to be a doctor.
She wonders what the other students in her
class want to be.
Raisa surveyed her classmates. Based on the
survey results, she drew this pictograph.
Career Goals
Teacher Key
One
Retail Person
Sales
Pilot
Doctor
Which animal has more babies per litter, a mouse or a cat? Grace
and Huong wanted to find out. First, they collected data. They asked
all the people in their school who have mice or cats whether or not
their pets have ever had a litter and if so, how many babies were in
the litter. Grace and Huong collected the following data about 18 mice
and 12 cats.
Mouse A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R
Number of Babies
in Litter 4 8 9 3 7 6 9 8 5 5 8 9 8 3 9 5 4 7
Cat A B C D E F G H I J K L
Number of Babies 4 6 3 5 5 3 8 3 7 5 4 10
in Litter
22 Picturing Numbers
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words C
Grace:
Huong:
Grace:
9. What did Grace do? Do the same for the cats using Student
Activity Sheet 6.
Grace concluded that the mice have about six babies each, and the
cats have about five.
10. Do you agree with Grace?
11. Try to be more precise than “about six babies” or “about five
babies.” Explain your reasoning.
12. Reflect For some species of animals to survive, they need many
offspring. Why do you think mice might need to have more
babies than cats?
24 Picturing Numbers
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words C
Dog Fifi Queenie Domino Chiquita Kasey Ginger Belle Truly Cookie Lady
Number of
4 3 3 4 2 2 3 2 4 3
Puppies
Huong: If the puppies were divided equally among the ten litters, how
many puppies would each dog have?
Grace: Three! It’s called the mean, or average.
13. Is it true that the mean is three pups per litter? Explain how you
checked it.
15. a. Use the data collected in your class to make a graph titled
“Our Favorite Kind of Music.” Choose your own type of graph
and explain your choice.
b. Reflect Can you find the mean kind of music preferred in your
class? Why or why not?
Throwing Darts
DeKalb Middle School has a dart-throwing
contest. Each grade selects a team for the
school playoffs. These are the rules for
selecting team members.
• You must throw at least three times.
• You may not throw more than ten times.
• All throws must be recorded.
• To be considered for the team, the
mean of all of your throws must be at
least 35 points.
18. If, instead, your next throw is worth 32 points, how many points
would you have to make on your third throw?
19. Jamal’s first throw was worth 30 points. After two more throws,
he qualified. What could his points for the next two throws have
been?
26 Picturing Numbers
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words C
28 29 30 35 36 36 40 40 45
25 30 32 35 39 45
21. If Tirza wants to qualify on her next throw, how many points does
she have to make?
Mike
36 38 30 33 37 33 33 39 32 45
Resci
36 36 29 28 38 40 32 40 40
Siu
35 36 32 34 36 34 37 40
Going on Vacation
September in Paradise
120
100
Temperature ( °F )
80
60
40
20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Day
28 Picturing Numbers
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words C
24. Reflect If you worked for a travel agency and you wanted to find
one number to describe the temperature in September in
Paradise, what number would you choose?
Softball 1970
Club Key
1980
10 Members
1990
Soccer 1970
Club
1980
1990
Swimming 1970
Club
1980
1990
30 Picturing Numbers
Kay, a stickler for accuracy, opened ten boxes of pushpins and
counted the number of pins in each box. She found the following
numbers of pins in the 10 boxes.
104, 100, 98, 99, 103, 97, 100, 102, 98, 103
Temperatures During
School Time
32 Picturing Numbers
Bars or Lines—Get the Picture? D
100°
90°
80°
Temperature (in °F)
70°
60°
50°
40°
30°
20°
10°
9:00 A.M. 10:00 A.M. 11:00 A.M. 12:00 P.M. 1:00 P.M. 2:00 P.M. 3:00 P.M.
Time
For the graph below, the temperature was measured every minute
over one day.
Monday, June 1st
100
Temperature (°F) 90
80
70
60
50
40
2 A.M. 4 A.M. 6 A.M. 8 A.M. 10 A.M. 12 P.M. 2 P.M. 4 P.M. 6 P.M. 8 P.M. 10 P.M. 12 A.M.
Time
This graph shows the daily January temperatures for one particular
year in Madison, Wisconsin.
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
–10
–20
7. What can you tell about the temperatures in January from the
graph?
34 Picturing Numbers
Bars or Lines—Get the Picture? D
12. Write a short newspaper article that describes the graph. Use your
answers from the previous questions and consider the following.
• When was the daily maximum temperature the highest?
• When was the daily maximum temperature the lowest?
• When was the daily minimum temperature the highest?
• When was the daily minimum temperature the lowest?
This table shows the typical average temperatures for each month in
15 vacation spots.
36 Picturing Numbers
Bars or Lines—Get the Picture? D
You could plot the typical mean temperatures for each month in a
graph. Since separate dots could be confusing if more than one resort
is presented in the graph, the dots are connected by straight lines and
different kinds of dots are used.
The graph shown here is a line graph of the temperatures in three of
the resort areas from the table on page 36.
90
80
Key 70
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
= ?
= ?
= ?
Month
17. The key on this graph is incomplete. Figure out which resort
areas these lines represent. Write them in your notebook.
18. Which of these three resort areas has the best climate? Why do
you think so? Describe the temperature changes over one year
for that area.
Sports Club
Year Softball Soccer Swimming
1970 45 130 60
21. Plot the data for the other clubs on Student Activity Sheet 9
and draw the connecting line segments. You may want to use
different colors for each graph or use different types of dots.
22. Does the graph help you decide which club grew the fastest?
23. If you look at how many new members joined a club in this
30-year period, which club grew the most?
24. If you look at how many times larger the total number of
members in 2000 is than the total in 1970, which club grew
the most?
25. a. Based on your answers to problems 22, 23, and 24, which
club do you think grew the most?
b. Reflect Why was a plot-over-time chosen to represent the
information?
38 Picturing Numbers
Bars or Lines—Get the Picture? D
Combining Graphs
Sometimes different types of graphs are
combined to represent information. This
may also help you to see a relationship
between different data sets.
20 400
Temperature
Rainfall
10 300
0 200
–10 100
–20 0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month
Rainfall
10 300
0 200
axes have the potential to be confusing?
Explain your thinking.
–10 100
–20 0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month
28. What time of the year would you advise tourists to visit Murre
Island if you knew they wanted to hike around the island?
40 Picturing Numbers
Bars or Lines—Get the Picture? D
The graph shows the mean temperature and amount of rainfall for
each month of the year on Albatross Island. The curve represents
temperature in degrees Celsius. The bars indicate rainfall in
millimeters per square meter.
20 400
Temperature
Rainfall
10 300
0 200
–10 100
–20 0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month
In this section, you learned how to make a line graph to show change
over time. A line graph or plot-over-time graph shows how numbers
change in different circumstances. When a line in a graph goes down
as the time advances, something else (like the temperature or the
number of people) is getting smaller; when a line in a graph goes up
as the time advances, something else is getting larger. Graphs can
help you see patterns and trends and are useful in making decisions.
The smallest number in a set of data is called the minimum. The
largest number is called the maximum.
Sometimes different types of graphs are combined, which may help
you see a relationship between different data about the same situation.
42 Picturing Numbers
North
3%
West East
Wind Speed
(in m/s)
>11.06
8.49 – 11.06
5.40 – 8.49
3.34 – 5.40
1.80 – 3.34
0.51 – 1.80
Source: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov
South
The wind rose shows how often the wind comes from a certain
direction. The longer a bar, the more often the wind comes from the
corresponding direction.
2. a. During the 31-day period shown in the graph, what percent of
the time did the wind come from the north?
The color of the bars gives an indication of the wind speed. Wind
speed is expressed in the legend in meters per second (m/s).
b. What direction did the strongest winds come from during this
period—North (N), East (E), South (S), or West (W)? What was
the wind speed of the strongest winds?
c. Find some other information based on the graph.
Number of
Students
Raffle Tickets Sold
Juan 12
Suzanne 27
Briana 18
David 35
44 Picturing Numbers
Section C A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Tia
James
Gerado
Phil
Carol
Key
5 basketball
cards
Additional Practice 45
Additional Practice
City S M T W T F S
Springfield 86 80 90 89 91 93 92
Orlando 99 88 95 96 99 97 98
Aspen 80 80 79 82 83 81 82
Boston 94 91 92 94 95 92 93
3. a. Create a graph that shows two line graphs: one for the average
daily temperatures of Boston, the other for the average daily
temperatures of Springfield.
b. Compare the two graphs. Explain the differences in the
temperatures.
46 Picturing Numbers
Section A Using Bar Graphs
1. a. Have a classmate look at your bar graph and the description to
see if they make sense.
b. The data you found can probably be presented in a table as
well. Whether or not the data can be presented in a different
type of graph depends on the example you found. You might
want to discuss your answers with a classmate.
2. a. You can tell that there are 19 pieces of data, but without labels
on the axes and without a title on the graph, it is almost
impossible to tell something about the data Neville and Sonia
gathered.
b. Your answer will be different from the ones shown here.
Sample responses:
The number line graph represents the number of baseball hats
owned by each student in the sixth grade.
Baseball Hats Owned by Sixth Graders
70
Number of Students
60 x
50 x
40 x x
30 x x x x
20 x x x x x
10 x x x x x x
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
7
Number of Students
6 x
5 x
4 x x
3 x x x x
2 x x x x x
1 x x x x x x
Shoe Sizes
3
6th Graders
2
7th Graders
1
0
Football Basketball Tennis Swimming None of
These
2. Sample questions:
a. How many more people chose dogs than fish as their
favorite pet?
b. Do more than half the people surveyed prefer cats?
3. a. Here are two sample graphs that tell the story of the data.
Your graph may be different.
Computer Game
48 Picturing Numbers
Answers to Check Your Work
You might say you chose the pie chart because you wanted to
show how the parts were related to the whole thing. You
might say you chose the bar graph because you wanted to
show the numbers as close as possible.
Or you could say:
b. The pie chart shows the that Tic Tac Go is the most popular
because it is the largest slice of the pie.
The bar graph shows that Tic Tac Go is the most popular
because it is the tallest bar.
2. Since the mean or average number of pushpins for the boxes Kay
looked at is a little more than 100, but not 101 (100.4), she could
have said that there were about 100 pushpins per box.
3. a. You can figure out different ways to divide up the money. For
example, you might start by having everyone with $0.75 (the
smallest amount to start) and then have them pool the rest to
make $2.55 + $0.65 + $0.90 + $1.40, or $5.50, which would give
everyone another $1 and another $0.10, so each would have
$1.00 + $0.10 + $0.75, or $1.85.
b. The amount they would each spend if they spent the same
amount would be the mean, $1.85.
50 Picturing Numbers