Frequency Tables and Graphs

We could also draw what we call a frequency table that shows us how many of your friends
studied less than or equal to 10 hours per week, 11 to 20 hours per week, 21 to 30 hours per
week, 31 to 40 hours per week and 41 to 50 hours per week. These are called buckets or
classes and each class has 10 hours in it (0 to 10 hours, and so on). Notice that our
buckets of data are a little different than the stem and leaf table above:

Then we could draw a histogram from this data, as shown below. A histogram, or
a frequency graph is a graph showing the distribution of the data where it lies.

Or even better, we can draw a relative frequency histogram, where we divide the
number of friends in each bucket or class by the total number of friends, as shown
below. The reason this is a better graph is that if you add up all the amounts for each
bucket, well get a grand total of 1 (all the decimals on the left add up to 1), so we can
compare different sets of data together.
This data is skewed to the right a bit (the right hand side has a longer tail). When
data is skewed to the left, the left side has a longer tail. When data isnt skewed left
or right, we call the data symmetric.
When the data is skewed right or left, the median is a better measure of the central
tendency (average) for the data, since the mean could be misleading. The mean tends to
go out in the tail. Here are some examples of other data that shows this (means and
medians may not be accurate just giving an idea):

Pie Chart
One more type of graph thats fun to draw is a circle graph, or pie chart. We could divide up
the buckets from our data above (numbers of hours our friends are studying per week),
and compute how big to make the pieces of the pie with the use of a little bit of Geometry.

Since we know the percentages of friends who fall into each category from the relative
frequency chart above, we can get the angle measurements of each piece of the pie (from
the center of the pie) by using proportions and the fact that there are 360 degrees in a
circle. By using proportions (for example, ), we find that we can just multiply the
relative frequency by 360 degrees to get each angle measurement. Heres the table again,
with the degrees for each bucket:

So (using our handy-dandy protractor that we learned how to use in Elementary School
Geometry, and will see later in our Geometry section) here is our pie chart:

Dont worry if you dont totally get all this this now! Later on in more advanced Algebra well
learn even more ways to display and interpret data (like when we compare two sets of data),
and also how to make a lot of these displays on your graphing calculator.

Probability
Before Algebra, you may also have studied a topic called Probability, which is related to
Statistics.
Basically, a probability is a number between 0 and 1 that tells us how likely something is
about to occur. Have you ever heard the expression The probability of my passing this
course is about 0%? Thats not a good sign for passing that course.

Probability can get complicated in advanced courses (well visit some of this later), but well
just talk about a few counting techniques and how to compute some basic probabilities.

A probability is defined as a fraction with the number of times something occurs over the
number of possible ways something can occur. For example, the probability of getting a
head if you flip a coin is , since only one thing happens (either a head or a tail), but 2
things could have happened (the head or the tail). Its a little confusing, but youll get it
after a while. This is an experiment, since it involves chance.
Experimental probabilities are those you get by actually doing an experiment (like
flipping the coin above). Youd have to this for many, many times (try it!) to get close to
the theoretical probability, which is the probability we get through mathematics.
An example of trying an experimental probability is to flip a coin 40 times and record
whether you get a head or a tail. At each coin toss, add up the number of heads so far, and
divide by number of flips so far, to get the experimental probability each time. Notice how it
gets closer to the theoretical probability .5 (more reliably less variability) as you get closer
to 40 coin tosses.

I just did this experiment with flipping a penny and checking the experimental probability
that I get heads at each coin toss (total number of heads so far, divided by total number of
flips so far). Notice how, even though the experimental probability doesnt end up at exactly
.5, the trend is that it gets closer to .5 (with less variance or deviation) the more times I flip
the coin:
If we did this experiment say for 2000 times, our experimental probability each time would
be reliably very, very close to the theoretical probability of .5. (You might try this for a
science experiment!)

Something that has no chance of happening has a probability of 0 (like the probability of
getting a 7 when you roll a die), and something that will always occur has a probability of 1
(like the probability of getting a number in between and including 1 and 6 when you roll a
die)

Probabilities usually involve some sort of counting to put on the top or bottom of the
fraction. For example, lets say we have 3 shirts, 2 skirts, and 2 pairs of shoes that weve
taken on a vacation. We want to know the probability of picking our sleeveless blue shirt,
with our purple skirt, with our platform sandal shoes for that day.
So do you see that the total number of things that you can get, or outcomes, is 3 times 2
times 2, which would be 12? Think about it for the first shirt, you could wear one of two
skirts, and one of two pairs of shoes, for the second shirt, the same thing, and so on. You
could draw a tree diagram like this:
So to get that combination (sleeveless blue shirt, purple skirt, and sandals), there would
be 1 way out of 12 possible ways, so the probability would be !
Here are some more examples of probability: