Describing Data:

Frequency Tables, Frequency

Distributions, and Graphic Presentation

Lectures 5 & 6

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 GOALS

1. Organize qualitative data into a frequency table.

2. Present a frequency table as a bar chart or a pie chart.
3. Organize quantitative data into a frequency distribution.
4. Present a frequency distribution for quantitative data
using histograms, frequency polygons, and cumulative
frequency polygons.
5. Develop and interpret a dot plot.
6. Develop and interpret a stem-and-leaf display.
7. Compute and understand quartiles, and box plots.
8. Construct and interpret a contingency table.

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 Pie Charts and Bar Charts
PIE CHART A chart that shows the proportion or percent that each class
represents of the total number of frequencies .

BAR CHART A graph in which the classes are reported on the

horizontal axis and the class frequencies on the vertical axis. The
class frequencies are proportional to the heights of the bars.
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 Pie Chart Using Excel

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 EXAMPLE – Creating a Frequency
Distribution Table

Ms. Kathryn Ball of

AutoUSA wants to develop
tables, charts, and graphs to
show the typical selling price
on various dealer lots. The
table on the right reports
only the price of the 80
vehicles sold last month at
Whitner Autoplex.

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 Frequency Table and Frequency Distribution

Class interval: The class interval is obtained by

FREQUENCY TABLE A grouping of qualitative data
into mutually exclusive classes showing the number
of observations in each class.
subtracting the lower limit of a class from
the lower limit of the next class.
Class frequency: The number of observations
in each class.
Class midpoint: A point that divides a class into
two equal parts. This is the average of the
upper and lower class limits.

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION A grouping of data into mutually exclusive

classes showing the number of observations in each class.
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 Relative Class Frequencies

 Class frequencies can be converted to relative class

frequencies to show the fraction of the total number
of observations in each class.
 A relative frequency captures the relationship between
a class total and the total number of observations.

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 Constructing a Frequency Table -
Example

 Step 1: Decide on the number of classes.

A useful recipe to determine the number of classes (k) is
the “2 to the k rule.” such that 2k > n.
There were 80 vehicles sold. So n = 80. If we try k = 6, which
means we would use 6 classes, then 26 = 64, somewhat less
than 80. Hence, 6 is not enough classes. If we let k = 7, then 27
128, which is greater than 80. So the recommended number of
classes is 7.

 Step 2: Determine the class interval or width.

The formula is: i  (H-L)/k where i is the class interval, H is
the highest observed value, L is the lowest observed value,
and k is the number of classes.
($35,925 - $15,546)/7 = $2,911
Round up to some convenient number, such as a multiple of 10
or 100. Use a class width of $3,000

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 Constructing a Frequency Table - Example

 Step 3: Set the individual class limits

 Step 4: Tally the vehicle selling prices

into the classes.

 Step 5: Count the number of items in

each class.

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 Relative Frequency Distribution

To convert a frequency distribution to a relative frequency

distribution, each of the class frequencies is divided by the total
number of observations.

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 Graphic Presentation of a Frequency
Distribution

The three commonly used graphic forms are:

 Histograms
 Frequency polygons
 Cumulative frequency distributions

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 Histogram

HISTOGRAM A graph in which the classes are marked on the

horizontal axis and the class frequencies on the vertical axis. The
class frequencies are represented by the heights of the bars and the
bars are drawn adjacent to each other.

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 Histogram Using Excel

13
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 Frequency Polygon

 A frequency polygon
also shows the shape
of a distribution and is
similar to a histogram.

 It consists of line
segments connecting
the points formed by
the intersections of the
class midpoints and the
class frequencies.

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 Histogram Versus Frequency Polygon

 Both provide a quick picture of the main characteristics of the

data (highs, lows, points of concentration, etc.)
 The histogram has the advantage of depicting each class as a
rectangle, with the height of the rectangular bar representing
the number in each class.
 The frequency polygon has an advantage over the histogram. It
allows us to compare directly two or more frequency
distributions.

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 Cumulative Frequency Distribution

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 Dot Plots
 A dot plot groups the data as little as possible and the identity of an individual observation is not lost.
 To develop a dot plot, each observation is simply displayed as a dot along a horizontal number line
indicating the possible values of the data.
 If there are identical observations or the observations are too close to be shown individually, the dots are
“piled” on top of each other.

EXAMPLE
Reported below are the number of vehicles sold in the last 24 months at Smith Ford Mercury Jeep, Inc.,
in Kane, Pennsylvania, and Brophy Honda Volkswagen in Greenville, Ohio. Construct dot plots
and report summary statistics for the two small-town Auto USA lots.

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 Dot Plots
 A dot plot groups the data as little as possible and the identity of an individual observation is not lost.
 To develop a dot plot, each observation is simply displayed as a dot along a horizontal number line
indicating the possible values of the data.
 If there are identical observations or the observations are too close to be shown individually, the dots are
“piled” on top of each other.

EXAMPLE
Reported below are the number of vehicles sold in the last 24 months at Smith Ford Mercury Jeep, Inc.,
in Kane, Pennsylvania, and Brophy Honda Volkswagen in Greenville, Ohio. Construct dot plots
and report summary statistics for the two small-town Auto USA lots.

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 Stem-and-Leaf
 Stem-and-leaf display is a statistical technique to present a set of data. Each numerical value is divided
into two parts. The leading digit(s) becomes the stem and the trailing digit the leaf. The stems are located
along the vertical axis, and the leaf values are stacked against each other along the horizontal axis.
 Two disadvantages to organizing the data into a frequency distribution:
(1) The exact identity of each value is lost
(2) Difficult to tell how the values within each class are distributed.

EXAMPLE
Listed in Table 4–1 is the number of 30-second radio advertising spots purchased by each of the 45
members of the Greater Buffalo Automobile Dealers Association last year. Organize the data into a
stem-and-leaf display. Around what values do the number of advertising spots tend to cluster?
What is the fewest number of spots purchased by a dealer? The largest number purchased?

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 Boxplot - Example

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 Boxplot - Example
Step1: Create an appropriate scale along the horizontal axis.
Step 2: Draw a box that starts at Q1 (15 minutes) and ends at Q3 (22 minutes).
Inside the box we place a vertical line to represent the median (18 minutes).
Step 3: Extend horizontal lines from the box out to the minimum value (13
minutes) and the maximum value (30 minutes).

Interquartile range IQR

= Q3-Q1= 22 – 15 = 7
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 Contingency Tables
 A scatter diagram requires that both of the variables be at least interval scale.
 What if we wish to study the relationship between two variables when one or both are nominal or ordinal scale? In this case we tally the results in a contingency table.

Examples:
1. Students at a university are classified by gender and class rank.
2. A product is classified as acceptable or unacceptable and by the shift (day, afternoon, or night) on which it is manufactured.
3. A voter in a school bond referendum is classified as to party affiliation (Democrat, Republican, other) and the number of children that voter has attending school in the district (0, 1, 2, etc.).

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 Contingency Tables – An Example
A manufacturer of preassembled windows produced 50 windows yesterday. This
morning the quality assurance inspector reviewed each window for all quality
aspects. Each was classified as acceptable or unacceptable and by the shift
on which it was produced. Thus we reported two variables on a single item.
The two variables are shift and quality. The results are reported in the
following table.

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