Cumulative Frequency and Box Plots

Learning Objectives
To be able to draw a cumulative frequency curve and use it to estimate the median and interquartile range and draw a box plot

Does anybody remember how to draw a Cumulative Frequency Diagram?

Cumulative Frequency Curves

Cumulative Frequency = a running total of the data

Median = Half way up the Cumulative Frequency

Lower Quartile (LQ) = way up Cum Freq Upper Quartile (UQ) = way up Cum Freq Inter Quartile Range = UQ - LQ

Big Worked Example

The table below shows the number of minutes students were late for their fun algebra lesson. (a) Draw a Cumulative Frequency Diagram of the data (b) Use it to find the Median, Lower Quartile, Upper Quartile, and Inter Quartile Range (c) Draw a Box-Plot assuming a minimum time of o minutes and a maximum of 25 minutes

Time t (mins)

Number of Students
10 16 30 22

Cumulative Frequency

0<t5 5 < t 10 10 < t 15 15 < t 20

20 < t 25

80 Cum freq

60

x Median = Middle Value

40

QUARTILES Lower Quartile = way Upper Quartile = way

x
20 x

10

12

15 15

20

25

t mins

Interquartile Range

= 15 - 8 = 7 mins

Does anybody have any idea what a Box Plot is?

Box Plots
Box Plots (Box and Whisker Diagram) are another way of displaying data for comparison

To draw a Box Plot we need FIVE pieces of information:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Minimum Value Lower Quartile (Q1) The Median (Q2) Upper Quartile (Q3) Maximum Value

They are drawn in the following way:

BOX = The location of the middle 50% of the data WHISKERS = How the data is spread overall

Box Plot from Cumulative Frequency Curve

70 60

Cumulative Frequency

50 40 30 20 10 0

LQ = 21

IQR = 38 21 = 17 mins Median = 27

10

20

30

40

UQ = 38

50

60

70

Minutes Late

10

20

30

40

50

60

Box Plot
Lowest value Median Lower Quartile Upper Quartile Highest value

10

15

20

25

t mins

Work
Ex 7:1
Page 62 Questions 5 and 6