DESCRIBING VARIABILITY USING HISTOGRAMS DRAWING A HISTOGRAM

Years of schooling com- Educational Level Percent

Bell-shaped Bimodal pleted for persons age 25 0 5 8
and over in the U.S. in 5 8 14
1960. The class inter- 8 9 18
9 12 19
vals include the left end- 12 13 25
points, but not the right. 13 16 9
16 or more 8
Lets try drawing a histogram for the distribution of educa-
tional level by year:

Right-skewed J-shaped
0 5 8 9 12 13 16 17

0 5 8 9 12 13 16 17
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (YEARS)

Percents plotted as heights

25
U-shaped Uniform
20

PERCENT
15
10
5
0
0 5 8 9 12 13 16 17
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (YEARS)

Are there more people with 9 to 12 years of schooling, or

with 12 to 13 years?

31 32
 What should the height of the block over the interval from USING HISTOGRAMS FOR COMPARISONS
9 to 12 years be?

PERCENT PER YEAR

40 1960
19%
= 6 13 % per year. 30
3 years
20
Distribution of persons age 25 and over
in the U.S. in 1960 by educational level 10
PERCENT PER YEAR

0
25 How do you 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
20 explain the
spikes? EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (YEARS)
15

PERCENT PER YEAR

10 40 1970
5 30
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (YEARS) 10

0
What is the area of the block over the interval from 9 to 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
years? EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (YEARS)
Area = Width Height

PERCENT PER YEAR

40 1986
= (3 years) 6 13 % per year 30
= 19%.
20

Remember: 10

A histogram represents percents by . The 0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
area of a block represents the percentage of cases in the
corresponding class interval. EDUCATIONAL LEVEL (YEARS)

The height of each block equals the percentage of cases Which block represents the percentage of the population
in the corresponding class interval, divided by the length which completed college? How has that percentage changed
of that interval. over time?

33 34
 SMOKING WAGES
In a Public Health Service study, a histogram was plotted A histogram of monthly wages for part-time employees is
showing the number of cigarettes smoked per day by each shown below. Nobody earned more than $1,000 a month. The
subject (male current smokers), as shown below. The density block over the class interval from $200 to $500 is missing. How
is marked in parentheses. The class intervals include the right tall must it be?
endpoint, but not the left.
(20)
The percentage who smoked 10 cigarettes or less per day is 20
around

% per $100
1.5% 15% 30% 50% (10)
10
The percentage who smoked more than a pack a day, but (5)
not more than 2 packs, is around
1.5% 15% 30% 50% 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(There are 20 cigarettes in a pack.) Wages (hundreds of dollars)
The percent who smoked more than a pack a day is around
1.5% 15% 30% 50% Area of the missing block = .
The percent who smoked more than 3 packs a day is around Missing Area = Total Area Other Areas
0.25 of 1% 0.5 of 1% 10% = 100% (10% + 20% + 25%)
The percent who smoked 20 cigarettes a day is around = 100% 55% = 45%.
0.35 of 1% 0.5 of 1% 1.5% 3.5% 10%
Height of the missing block = .
4 (3.5) Area 45%
Height = = = 15% per $100.
Width $300
% per cigarette

2 (1.5) (1.5) Remember: the total area of a histogram is .

1 (0.5)

0
0 10 20 40 80
Number of cigarettes

35 36
 BAR CHARTS AN ALTERNATIVE TO HISTOGRAMS:
THE STEM-AND-LEAF PLOT
The following chart shows the percentage breakdown of the
students in Statistics 200 for Spring quarter 1997 by Political The following display is a stem-and-leaf plot of the list of
Affiliation: differences 200, 80, 0, 50, 120, . . . , 190, 50
50
Verbal SAT score Math SAT score

for students in this course.

40
Numbers to the left
1 22 of the are stems
30
97555 Digits to the right
0 2211 of the are leaves
Percent

0 000111122234 Diff Stem Leaf

55556678
20 200 2 0
1 114 80 0 8
7999 0 0 0
2 0 50 0 5
10 120 1 2
.. .. ..
Leaf unit = 10 . . .
1 4 = 140 190
50
0
Republican Democrat Independent Other
Two differences, 190 and 40, have not yet been plotted;
When is it appropriate to use a histogram to display the where do they go?
distribution of a variable, and when a bar chart? Do the students tend to have higher Verbal scores, or
higher Math scores?
Type of variable Method of display
How are stem-and-leaf plots and histograms similar/
Quantitative Histogram dissimilar? What are the advantages/disadvantages of
Qualitative Bar chart stem-and-leaf plots relative to histograms?

37 38
 SAT SCORES
The following data set lists the Verbal and Math SAT scores MATH AND VERBAL SAT SCORES
for the students in this course. (You do not need to copy these STATISTICS 200, SPRING QUARTER, 1997
lists.) Class intervals contain the right endpoint

Verbal SAT scores Legend

MATH
800 760 800 550 680 600 660 730 740 600 VERBAL
700 500 680 710 600 710 700 700 560 650
680 530 660 590 780 700 800 570 600 600 35
800 710 690 630 720 800 670 710 660 750
680 30

PERCENT PER 50 POINTS

Math SAT scores
25
600 680 800 600 800 650 780 670 650 650
560 500 700 700 600 600 680 710 580 720
620 515 640 600 590 650 630 610 590 550 20
610 640 660 720 680 690 650 700 610 560
630 15
How do the two sets of scores compare?
10

0
450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
SCORE
 SKETCHES
Six sketches are shown below. Four of them are histograms
for the following variables in a small town:
(a) heights of all members of households where both parents
are less than 24 years old;
(b) heights of married couples;
(c) heights of all people;
(d) heights of all automobiles.
Match the variables with their histograms. Explain your
reasoning.
............
... ......
.
.... ...
...
(i) ... ... (ii)
...
.
. ...
.... ...
...
.. ... ....................
... ... ........ .....
... ... ....... ....
...
.. ... .
...
....... ...
... .. ...
....
. ...
... ..
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
.. .
...
...
.... ...
.. .. ........
. .
...........
.. ...
.. .. .
.... ...
.

20 50 80 20 50 80
Height (inches) Height (inches)
..................
(iii) ....
...
...
...
(iv)
..
. ...
....
. ...
.
.. ...
..
. ... .........
.
. ... ...................... ...........................
.
. ... ............ .......
.
.
.
.
. ... .
...
...
........... ......
. ... ..... .....
..
.
.
. ... ..
...
..........
. ....
. ...
... .. .........

20 50 80 20 50 80
Height (inches) Height (inches)

(v) (vi)
.............................
.......... .......
....... ...... ........................................................
....... ..... ........... ........
. .
.... ..... ......... .......
.
...
. .
.. ... ...
...
......... ......
......
. .
... ... ..
....
.
. ... ...
. ......
.
..
..
. . ........ ...

0 100 200 300 20 50 80

Weight (pounds) Income (dollars per day)