Chpt 20: Histograms

Objectives: To understand why a histogram is

useful for displaying data, and how to both draw
and interpret a histogram.
 Age (years) Frequency Pablo is hosting a party. He counts how many
people are between 15 and 20, and 20 and 50.
15 ≤ a < 20 15
20 ≤ a < 50 15 Why is below graph somewhat unhelpful.
How could we fix it?

Click to Start
Bromanimation
Frequency

15
The 15 people in the
second group are more
spread out in age, but
this graph seems to
suggest that people’s
ages are spread out
uniformly between 15
and 50.

10 20 30 40 50
Age
 Age (years) Frequency Let’s presume that within each age group, the
ages are evenly spread.
15 ≤ a < 20 15 Then there would ? 3 people of each age in
20 ≤ a < 50 15 the 15-20 group, and 0.5? people of each
age in the 20-50 group.

Click to Start
3 Bromanimation
Estimated Frequency
Frequency Density

The resulting diagram is known as a histogram.

The ‘frequency per age’ is known as the ‘frequency density’.
2 In general, given the frequency and class width, we can
calculate it using:
Frequency
Class ?
Frequency Density =
Width
1

10 20 30 40 50
Age
 Bar Charts vs Histograms

Bar Charts Histograms

? data.
• For discrete ? data.
• For continuous
• Frequency given by • Data divided into (potentially
? of bars.
height uneven) intervals.
? of
• Frequency given by area
bars.

Frequency Density
Frequency

6 7 8 9 1.0m 1.2m 1.4m 1.6m 1.8m

Shoe Size Height
Examples

1 Weight (w kg) Frequency Frequency Density

0 < w ≤ 10 40 4
?
6 1.2
10 < w ≤ 15
? Freq
15 < w ≤ 35 52 ? 2.6
35 < w ≤ 45 10 ? 1 F.D. Width

2 Frequency = 40?
5 Frequency = 15?
Frequency = 25?
Frequency Density

3
?
Frequency = 30

10 20 30 40 50
Height (m)
 Always start by adding a
3 Frequency Density Frequency Density column

?
30  30 = 1
Bro Tip: For this kind of question,
?
84 ? graph)
4.2 (using first find a ‘complete’ set of
?
60 6 (using?graph) information: i.e. for the first row in
this question, we have the
40  20 ?=2 frequency and the drawn bar, so
18  30 ?= 0.6 can work out the F.D. scale.

8
7
The Box of Helpfulness
6 We don’t know the scale on the
5
frequency density axis. Can we work it
out using the first row of the table?
4
3
2 This triangle
Freq will help
1 throughout.

F.D. Width
Test Your Understanding (on your sheet)

FD
3.8
4.8
?
4.2 Bro Hint: The second row has a
?
31 3.1 ‘complete’ set of information (bar and
frequency)
0.8
 Quickfire Questions – Determining F.D. scale
Work out the scales on the frequency density axis.

4 16 2
Frequency Density

Frequency Density
Frequency Density
3 12
?2 8
? ?1
1 4

0 10 20 0 10 20 20 28 36
Height (m) Height (m) Height (m)
Frequency Frequency Frequency
Questions

Provided collection of past GCSE questions.

(Answers on next slides)
Question 1

FD
3.2
2
12
?6
?
1.2
0.6
0.4

4.0

3.2

2.4

1.6

0.8
Question 2

FD
0.8
1
1.6
2 ?
1.2

2.0

1.5

?
1.0

0.5
Question 3
FD
3
5
?
3.6
1.2
(b) Work out an estimate for
the number of cars with a
speed of more than 85 km/h.
5
Note that 85 to 100 is three-
4 quarters of the 80 to 100 interval.
Thus we can estimate we’ll have
?
of the 24 drivers in this group.
3

1
Question 4

FD
?
30 1
3.5
?
60 3 ?
1.5
0.5
Question 5

?
24
?
30
Summary So Far
Purpose:
Histograms allow us to
display continuous data
grouped into (potentially
non-fixed) intervals. The
idea is that they?reflect
the ‘concentration’ of
things within each range
of values.
Frequency Density Formula:
Frequency Density is
‘frequency per unit value’, i.e:
Freq ?
F.D. Width
Area:
The area of a bar is equal
to the frequency*.
?
* Actually it’s only proportional to it, but
you don’t need to worry about that till A
Level.
Working out the F.D. scale:
If the frequency is known and the bar
height is known, we? can work out the
scale using the formula on the left.
Harder Histogram Questions

We previously saw that the area

gives us frequency. If we don’t have
the frequency density axis, we
could use the idea that area and
frequency are in proportion to
each other.

One strategy: Since area

represents frequency, find out
how many people each square is
worth.

130cm-135cm  20 squares
Each square worth: children
?
110-130cm  70 squares
children

If each square is 0.5 children, we

need 12Click to show?
squares.
Harder Histogram Questions

However, there’s nothing

stopping you using the same
3 approach as before: working out
the frequency density axis from
a ‘complete’ set of information
2 (i.e. where we have the
frequency AND the bar).

1
So finding area between 110cm and
130cm (as area = frequency)
?
Test Your Understanding (use either method)
a (If using square count method,
perhaps count big squares
rather than little squares.)

18 big squares 9 students

So 1 square = 0.5 students

Total squares = 30
15 students ?

OR: F.D. =
Then use areas of bars.

b 24 (big) squares required

(We can have 4 rows of 5 to get
first 20 squares, but have to split
the last 4 squares across 5, thus
?
use of a square for each square at
top)
This is quite a clumsy method, so
the frequency density approach
would probably be easier here.
 Proportion Histogram Questions
Sometimes you have to find the proportion of people/things/animals within some
range of values. Key Point: Since area is frequency, the proportion of the area is
the same as the proportion of the frequency. e.g. If half the area
is above 18m, then half the people are above 18m.

8 Total area ?
7
What proportion of people had a
6 height:
Frequency Density

5 Between 10 and 14m:

4 ?
Between 14 and 18m:
3

2 ?
1 Bro Tip: If the frequency
density scale is missing, you
can set it to what you like for
10 14 18 22 26
this kind of question.
Height (m)
Test Your Understanding
Bro Tip: I recommend writing the area of each bar on the bar itself, as you’ll likely have to use some areas twice.

Solution:
Total apples:
(40 x 0.12) + (20 x 0.36) + (20 x
0.7) + (20 x 0.56) + (40 x 0.18) =
44.4

Apples in range?140-160g:
(20 x 0.36) + (20 x 0.7) + (20 x
0.56) = 32.4

Proportion =
Questions

Provided collection of past GCSE questions.

Solutions – Question 1

a If we use 1,2,3,… on
frequency density scale:
Total area

Area between 25 and 40

mins:
?
Percentage:

b of area is between
10-15 mins.
?
Solutions – Question 2

60

50 Answer:

40 ?

30

20

10
Solutions – Question 3
The histogram shows information about the lifetime of some batteries.

14
12 Total batteries
F requency
density10

8
batteries
?
6
4
2

1.5 2 2 .5 3 3 .5 4 4 .5 5

Two of the batteries had a lifetime of between 1.5 and 2.5 years. Find the total number of batteries.
Solutions – Question 4

FD
16
4
2.4
4.8

Frequency Density
16
40 12
60 8
4
56
0
32

B1 for Frequency density label or

appropriate units
?
B2 for 4 correct histogram bars sq
(B1 for 2 bars correct)
Solutions – Question 5

0.05
8
6? 0.04

0.03
?
0.02

0.01