8 Data Handling
8 Data Handling
8 Data Handling
8.1 Tables and Timetables
This section is concerned with the use of tables and timetables.
Worked Example 1
This timetable is part of a rail timetable for trains from the south west of England.
Saturdays
(a) Stewart wants to travel from Penzance to London Paddington. Describe the different
options shown on this timetable.
(b) How can John get from Plymouth to Bristol Temple Meads?
(c) How long does the 0715 train take to go from Penzance to Newton Abbot?
Does the 0846 train take the same time?
Solution
(a) There are several possible options, including:
(i) leave Penzance at 0715 and arrive at Newton Abbot at 0948. Then leave
Newton Abbot at 1015 and arrive at London Paddington at 1325;
(ii) leave Penzance at 0846 and travel direct to London Paddington, arriving
at 1410.
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(iii) leave Plymouth at 1000 and travel to Newton Abbot, arriving at 1044. Then
leave Newton Abbot at 1052 and travel to Bristol Temple Meads, arriving
at 1255.
(c) The 0715 train takes 2 hours 33 minutes; the 0846 train is quicker, taking 2 hours
26 minutes.
Worked Example 2
The chart can be used to find the mileage between some Scottish towns and cities.
en
rde
e
Ab h
rg
bu
in
m
Ed
115 ia
ill
W
rt
Fo
152 130
ow
sg
la
142 44 103
G
s
es
rn
ve
rth
Pe
81 42 103 61 115 r
ae
nr
ra
226
St
Solution
en
rde
e
(a) To find the distance between Ab
h
rg
115
ia
152 130
ow
sg
la
s
es
rn
ve
rth
Pe
81 42 103 61 115
r
ae
nr
ra
226
St
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8.1
h
123 miles.
rg
bu
in
m
Ed
115
ia
ill
W
rt
Fo
152 130
ow
sg
la
142 44 103
ss
rne
ve
104 156 66 169
In
rth
Pe
81 42 103 61 115
a er
nr
ra
226
St
123 183 84 249 145
(c)
n
ee
erd
Ab
The largest number in the table rg
h
bu
is 249.
in
m
Ed
115
Using the highlight, this is the ia
ill
W
152 130
Stranraer. So these two places
ow
sg
142 44 103
G
s
es
rn
ve
rth
Pe
81 42 103 61 115 a er
nr
ra
226
St
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Mondays to Fridays
Penzance — — — — — — 0641 —
Plymouth — 0725 0735 — — 0818 0832 —
Ivybridge — — — — — 0832 — —
Totnes — 0752 0802 — — 0848 — —
Paignton 0723 — — 0800 0826 — — 0856
Torquay 0728 — — 0805 0832 — — 0901
Torre 0731 — — 0808 — — ——0904
Newton Abbot 0740 0805 0815 0818 0844 0900 0908 0914
Teignmouth 0747 — — 0825 — — — 0921
Dawlish 0752 — — 0830 — — — 0926
Dawlish Warren 0756 — — — — — — 0929
Starcross 0759 — — 0835 — — — 0933
Exeter St. Thomas 0808 — — 0844 — — — 0942
Exeter St. David's 0812 0824 0834 0846 0903 — 0930 0945
Exeter Central 0818 0836 0853 0853 0923 — 0940 0953
Exmouth 0848 — 0918 0918 0948 — — 1018
Barnstaple — — — 0955 — — — —
Tiverton Parkway — 0841 0851 — 0920 — — —
Taunton — 0854 0904 — 0933 — 0959 —
Bristol Temple Meads — 0932 — — 1009 — 1049 —
London Paddington — — 1110 — — — —
2. Use the timetable below to answer these questions about James' journey.
(a) James catches the 1927 at Reading. What time does this arrive at
Cardiff Central?
(b) How long does his journey take?
(c) He wanted to arrive at Cardiff before 11.00 pm. Could he have caught a
later train?
(d) What is the latest train he could have caught from Reading to arrive at
Cardiff before 11.00 pm?
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8.1
3. Farharaz arrives by taxi at London Paddington at 0800. Use the timetable below to
answer the following questions.
(a) Can he get to Totnes by train to meet his friend Lucy at noon?
(b) What is the earliest time he can arrive in Totnes?
(c) Lucy can meet Farharaz at Newton Abbot. What is the earliest time he can be
there?
18 114
by
40 74 40
r
ste
ca
on
93 34 92 54
to Leeds and then to Manchester.
e ds
Le
109 9 110 70 28
te
80 34 94 59 51 40
ld
fie
he travels be reduced if
ef
Sh
he went to Manchester 77 37 78 37 18 33 38
and then to Leeds?
(c) Denise is going to Birmingham from Leeds. She must stop in either Bradford
or Sheffield on the way. Which is the shorter route?
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5. The table gives the distances in km between 3 ports, Calais, St. Malo and
Boulogne, and some holiday destinations in Europe.
Boulogne
St. Malo
Calais
e
nc
e
or
1422 1560 1430
Fl
n
ke
rla
te
811 1169 819 612
In
ec
ni
1370 1561 1388 307 563
Ve
r
pe
m
729 244 707 1708 1172 1710
ui
Q
R e
de
704 344 670 1494 995 1355 400
Ile
z
rit
ar
1110 729 1152 1358 1233 1504 787 409
Bi
(a) The Eccles family decide to go to Biarritz for their holiday. Which of the
three ports (Calais, St. Malo or Boulogne) is closest to Biarritz?
(b) They decide to start their holiday at Calais, and also to visit Venice before
they return to Calais. How far do they have to travel in total?
(c) Their friends, the Morse family, decide to travel from St. Malo to Biarritz,
then Interlaken and return to Boulogne. How far do they have to travel?
(d) Which holiday destination is closest to St. Malo and which is closest to
Calais?
6. In a school 30 students took GCSE exams in both Maths and Physics. Their results
are given in this table.
Maths Grade
A B C D E
A 2 3
B 1 1 4
Physics
Grade C 2 3 2
D 4 2 2
E 1 0 2 1
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8.1
(a) How many students got the same grade in both subjects?
(b) How many students got a higher grade in Physics than in Maths?
(c) Which was the most common grade in Physics?
7. The table shows the sports options selected by a group of students in each of their
years in secondary school. In each year, each student chose just one sport.
Year 7 6 18 5 14
Year 8 5 16 7 15
Year 9 7 14 10 12
Year 10 2 12 10 19
Year 11 8 13 12 10
8. The table below shows the cost of a week at a large holiday centre. The cost varies
according to the number of people in the party and the type of accommodation
booked. There is a £20 reduction for each child.
Accommodation Type
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(a) How much would it cost for Mr and Mrs Jones and their 4 children to
stay in 'Comfortable' accommodation for one week?
(b) How much more would it cost if they booked 'Luxury' accommodation?
(c) How much would they save in 'Saver' accommodation compared with
'Luxury' accommodation?
(d) (i) How much would it cost if two grandparents came with the family and
they all stayed in 'Saver' accommodation?
(ii) By how much does this differ from the total in part (a)?
Male Female
Standard
Senior
10. Each student in a class chose one sport. The numbers of choices were put in a table.
and French.
C 1 7 2
D 2 3 1
E 3 1
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8.1
(a) How many of the students who achieved grade B in English achieved a
different grade in French?
(b) How many students achieved the same grade in both subjects.
(c) What does the table suggest about the grades achieved in English and
French?
(SEG)
12. St. Margaret's School entered Y11 and Y10 pupils for the NEAB mathematics
examination at levels P, Q and R as shown in the table.
(a) How many Y10 pupils have entered for the examination?
(b) (i) What was the total number of pupils entered for level Q?
(ii) What percentage of the pupils entered at level Q were Y10 pupils?
Boys 25 18 7
Y11
Girls 10 45 11
Boys 0 13 3
Y10
Girls 0 14 1
(NEAB)
8
Bar Chart
Number of 6
Children 4
2
Football
Tennis
Swimming
Cricket
Snooker
Sports
Football
Tennis
Pictogram
Swimming
Cricket
Snooker
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Worked Example 1
Monday
The pictogram shows the number of customers
using a coffee shop during one week. Tuesday
Solution
(a) For Wednesday there are 5 symbols, so the number of customers was
5 × 20 = 100
(b) For Monday there are 3 12 symbols, so the number of customers was
1
3 × 20 = 70
2
(c) The total for the week is given by
70 + 60 + 100 + 50 + 100 + 130 = 510 customers.
Worked Example 2
John asked each person in the class what their shoe size was. He obtained these results.
7 5 6 8 4 5 12
6 12 7 8 7 12 5 12 6
6 12 5 12 7 6 6 12 8
7 5 6 12 6 7 12 7
5 12 6 5 5 12 6 7 12
30
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8.2
6
Number of
children 4
0
1
4 4 2 5 5 12 6 6 1
2 7 7 1
2 8
Shoe size
Exercises
1. Jenny kept a record of the average 1990
number of cans she recycled each 1991
week over a number of years. The
pictogram shows her results. 1992
(ii) 1991,
Represents 2 cans per week
(iii) 1994?
(c) In which year did she recycle an average of 11 cans per week?
2. The pictogram shows how many suitcases were sold by a shop from 1990 to 1996,
with one row missing.
Property
Property
Property
1990
of
of
of
M.
M.
M.
James
James
James
Property
Property
Property
Property
1991
of
of
of
of
M.
M.
M.
M.
James
James
James
James
Property
Property
Property
1992
of
of
of
M.
M.
M.
James
James
James
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
1993
of
of
of
of
of
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
James
James
James
James
James
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
1994
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
James
James
James
James
James
James
James
1995
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
Property
1996
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
M.
James
James
James
James
James
James
James
Property
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3. A class conducted a survey to find their favourite ice creams. The results were:
Solero 9
Magnum 12
Mars 7
Feast 4
4. A group of students recorded the number of vehicles passing their school in one
hour. The results are recorded below.
Cars 20
Vans 8
Lorries 3
Motorbikes 5
Buses 2
5. Draw a bar chart to show the data given in the table about the hours of sunshine
per day at a number of resorts.
Resort Hours of Sunshine
per Day
Algarve 6
Benidorm 6
Eilat 7
Majorca 5
Mombasa 9
Tenerife 6
Torremolinos 6
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8.2
6. The children on a school bus were asked which year group they were in. Their
replies were:
10 7 7 10 11 9 8 7 8 9
7 9 11 11 8 8 9 7 10 10
11 8 9 7 10 11 11 11 11 7
7 7 8 7 8 9 10 10 9 8
7. A headteacher asked a class of Year 7 students how many younger brothers and
sisters each student had. The results were:
0 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 1
2 0 0 1 1 2 3 4 1 1
2 1 2 0 0 3 2 1 5 1
Terrestrial TV only
Satellite or cable TV
100
Percentage
of 50
households
0
1984 1988 1992 1996
Year
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9.
1992 USS Matt USS Matt USS Matt USS Matt USS Matt
USS Matt
= 10 ships
The diagram shows how many ships were in Mathsland's navy in 1992 and 1993.
Use the diagram to answer these questions.
(a) How many ships were there in Mathsland's navy in 1992?
(b) How many ships were there in Mathsland's navy in 1993?
(LON)
10. The bar chart below shows the shoe sizes of a group of 16 year old boys.
7
6
5
4
Frequency
3
2
1
0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Shoe size
11.
COST OF UNEMPLOYMENT PER HEAD OF POPULATION
£450
£400
£350
£300
£250
£200
£150
£100
£50
0
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8.2
(a) There are 19 coins in the pile for Ireland? To the nearest whole number, how
many pounds does one coin represent?
(b) Estimate the cost of unemployment per head of population in Germany.
(c) The cost of unemployment per head of population in Japan is £218.
How many coins would there be in the pile for Japan?
(d) Explain why the pictogram is only approximate.
r w r b r Key:
r r w r r w white
b blue
b w r r w
r red
w g r w r g green
g w w b r
White
Blue
Red
Green
14
12
Frequency
10
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Worked Example 1
Tracey uses her pocket money of £18 per month in the following way.
Magazines £4
Sweets £3
Swimming £6
Bus fares £4
Money box £1
Draw a pie chart to show how Tracey uses her pocket money.
Solution
Tracey has a total of £18.
360°
= 20°
18
So 20° should be used for each £1. The angles needed are given in this list.
Magazines 4 × 20° = 80°
Sweets 3 × 20° = 60°
Swimming 6 × 20° = 120°
Bus fares 4 × 20° = 80°
Money box 1 × 20° = 20°
Money Box
80
Bus Fares Magazines
20
80
80
60
120
Sweets
Swimming
105
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8.3
Worked Example 2
The pie chart was constructed by asking 72 children how
they travel to school.
Bike
(a) How many children travel to school by: Walk
65˚
(i) car, (ii) bike, (iii) bus? 105˚
Car 50˚
(b) What percentage walk to school? 140˚
Solution Bus
Note
Alternatively, you could just use the angles in the pie chart to give
105
× 100 ≈ 29.1%
360
Exercises
1. In an opinion poll 360 people were asked who they would vote for in the next
election. Their responses are:
Labour 150
Liberal Democrat 60
Conservative 100
Other 50
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2. Sarah recorded how she spent the last 24 hours. Her results are below.
Sleeping 9 hours
School 7 hours
Homework 2 hours
Watching TV 3 hours
Eating 1 hour
Travelling 2 hours
Draw a pie chart to show this information.
3. Emma has 720 stamps in her stamp collection. She has sorted them into three
groups.
UK 400 stamps, Europe 200 stamps, Other countries 120 stamps
Draw a pie chart to show this information.
4. The 30 pupils in a class state their favourite sport. Their results are listed below.
Snooker 3
Football 9
Netball 6
Squash 2
Tennis 10
Draw a pie chart to show this information. BBC 1
CH 4
5. The pie chart shows how the time Ron spends
watching television is split between different 90˚ 45˚
channels, for one day.
Ron spends 1 hour watching BBC1. 225˚
(a) How long does he spend watching CH4?
(b) How long does he spend watching satellite TV?
SATELLITE
Quasar
6. Ahmed was given £60 on his birthday. The
pie chart shows how he spent this money.
How much did he spend on: 60˚
(a) Quasar, CDs
CD's 210˚
90˚
(b) his new jeans,
New jeans
(c) CDs?
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8.3
7. The pie chart shows the football teams supported by a class of children. There are
3 children who support Spurs.
Leeds
Manchester
United
156˚
36˚
72˚
Spurs
Liverpool
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Bus fares
Going out
Clothes
Records
Others
Spending
Item £
Food 30
Clothes 20
Other items 20
Housing 98
This pie chart shows how the average person spends money.
Other
items
Food
Clothes
Housing
Heating and
lighting
(b) Describe one way in which Arthur's spending differs from the average
person's spending.
(SEG)
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8.3
11. This question is about the way water is used in two Mozambique villages.
(a) In village A, 324 litres of water are used each day.
The pie chart shows how the water is used.
Cooking Washing
themselves
USE OF
WATER 90˚ 90˚
IN 54˚ 72˚
VILLAGE A Given to 54˚
animals Washing
clothes
Washing
pots
(i) How much water (in litres) is used each day for cooking?
(ii) What fraction of the water used is given to animals?
12. (a) (i) 500 000 cars were stolen in England and Wales in 1990.
Write the number 500 000 in words.
(b) The chart shows information about the people who stole cars in 1990.
Use the information in the diagram to answer these questions about car
theft in 1990.
40% 21%
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(i) What percentage of the cars stolen were taken by people aged
under 17?
(ii) Which age group was the least likely to be involved in stealing cars?
(iii) What is the probability that a stolen car was taken by a person who
was aged 17 or over?
Give your answer as a decimal or a fraction.
(NEAB)
Worked Example 1
Stuart recorded the temperature in his greenhouse at 6 pm each day for a week. His
records are shown on this line graph.
30
25
20
Temperature
(˚C)
15
10
M T W T F S S
Day
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8.4
30 C
Highest
(b) The lowest temperature occurred on Friday 30
and was 19°C .
Temperature ˚C 25
10
M T W T F S S
Worked Example 2 Day
Day
As part of a science project Evan records the height of a plant every week. His results are
in this table.
Week 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Height (cm) 0 1 3 4 6 8 9
Solution
First draw a suitable set of axes.
Then plot a point for each measurement as shown below.
Week 6, Height 9
9
Week 5, Height 8
8
Week 4, Height 6
6
Height
(cm) 5
Week 3, Height 4
4
Week 2, Height 3
3
Week 1, Height 1
1
Week 0, Height 0
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Week
The points can then be joined with straight lines as shown in the next graph.
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Height
(cm) 5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Week
Exercises
1. The line graph shows the monthly rainfall for a town.
5
Rainfall
(cm)
4
0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month
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8.4
2. A mug was filled with hot water and the temperature was recorded every
5 minutes. The graph below shows the results.
80
70
60
50
Temperature
(˚C) 40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Time (mins)
3. The following graph shows how the height of a sunflower plant changed since it
was planted in a garden.
(a) What was the height of the plant when it was planted in the garden?
(b) How much did the plant grow in the first week?
(c) What is the greatest height that the graph shows?
(d) How long did it take for the height to increase from 54 cm to 78 cm?
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80
70
60
50
Height
(cm)
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Weeks
4. Paul recorded the temperature outside his house at 8.00 am every day. His results are
in the table.
Day M T W T F S S
Temperature ( C) 8 5 4 6 7 5 3
5. Karen counted the number of cars that drove past her while she was waiting at the
bus stop each morning on her way to work.
Day M T W T F S
Number of cars 18 12 22 36 4 10
6. Anna recorded the time it took her to walk to school every day for a week.
Day M T W T F
Time taken (mins) 8 9 15 12 7
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7. Stuart is training to run a marathon. Each week he recorded the time it took him to
run 5 miles.
Week 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (mins) 52 50 46 44 40 36 34
Questions can be designed in two distinct ways, namely those that require a specified
response to be chosen from a number of options or by giving a number, and those that
allow more detailed responses. The first group are often referred to as closed questions;
the second as open questions. Here are some examples.
Closed
"Did you watch the football match on TV last night?"
YES / NO
"How many hours of TV did you watch last night?"
The second example of a closed question shows an example with multiple responses – by
which we mean more than 2! So 'YES / NO' is not regarded as a multiple response.
There is though a problem with these responses as there is potential overlap. i.e. in which
category do you place 1 hour or 2 hours, etc.? It should be made clear, i.e. 0 – 1 includes
everything up to and including 1, etc.
Open
"What sort of TV programmes do you like to watch, and why?"
"Where did you go for your holiday last year?"
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The second example is good for a face to face discussion, as it allows a wide range of
answers. The questioner will then be able to react to these answers, and continue the
discussion. This example is bad for a questionnaire for the same reason! Any answer is
possible but the writer of the questionnaire does not have the chance to follow up
answers. It could though be modified and become a closed question with multiple
responses: for example,
"Please tick a box to show where you went on holiday last year."
Worked Example 1
Consider this questionnaire:
Are you concerned about the environment?
Are you concerned about the level of pollution caused by cars?
Do you think the health of young children is at risk due to exhaust fumes from cars?
Is there too much congestion in the city centre?
Is public transport under-used?
Do you think cars should be banned from the city centre?
Comment on the questions given here.
Solution
This questionnaire is very biased and has been designed to lead people towards answering
'yes' to the last question. There are no questions about the advantages of cars, the
problems of using public transport or other ways of reducing pollution.
Worked Example 2
What is wrong with the following survey, used to find the favourite sports of the students
in one school?
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MEP Pupil Text 8
8.5
Solution
The question used in this survey does not cover all the possible responses well. Many
students might have, for example, football as their favourite sport and so would tick the
box marked 'Other'. This would give unhelpful results. Also, students are asked to make
only one choice although they may well like more than one sport.
The following wording would produce more useful responses.
I really enjoy
I've no great
I dislike this
preference
I hate this
this sport
I like this
sport
sport
sport
Tennis
Rugby
Netball
Basketball
Swimming
Snooker
Please put any
other sport that
you like here
Exercises
1. Consider the following two sets of questions.
(a) Comment on the way that the last question might be answered in each case.
(b) Write a better set of questions to find out if people like eating meat.
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MEP Pupil Text 8
She then says that her class's favourite breakfast cereal is Cornflakes.
(a) Is her conclusion valid?
(b) Criticise her question.
(c) Write a better question for her to use.
5. You have been asked to estimate what percentage of all cars on the road have each
registration letter (M, N, etc.).
(a) Describe how you would collect the data for a survey to answer this
problem.
(b) Describe any problems that might arise as you collect data.
6. Akiko did a survey to find out which colours of cars are popular.
She found that red was the most popular colour. She did not find any cars that were
purple or pink.
Think about a survey which you could do. It must not be about the colour of cars.
(a) What is your survey about?
(b) Write down two things which you might expect to find out.
(MEG)
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MEP Pupil Text 8
8.5
(B) "Tick the box which describes why you most like living here."
Design of houses
Friendliness of neighbours
More open space
% Boys % Girls
(a) Which two sports are the most popular with both boys and girls?
(b) The question asked in the survey was:
Which sports do you take part in?
You want to find out more about pupils' involvement in sport.
Write down another question that you could ask.
(NEAB)
9. The school governors are worried about road safety outside the school gates.
They think there ought to be a Pelican Crossing.
To decide on this, they need to find out how much traffic comes along the road at
different times of day and on different days of the school week.
Design an observation sheet to gather this information.
(NEAB)
10. Mee Ling thinks that pupils who come to school by bus are more likely to be late
than those who do not travel by bus.
In order to test whether or not this is true, she carries out a survey on 100 pupils,
from years 7 and 8, for 5 consecutive Tuesdays.
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Bus 150 40
Cycle 50 10
Car 100 22
Walk 200 25
TOTAL 500 97
You are asked to conduct a survey to find out what students eat for breakfast.
Design an observation sheet to collect the data you need.
Invent the first 20 entries on your data sheet.
(b) The newspaper made the following statement about the eating habits of
teenagers.
You are asked to find out whether this statement is true in your area.
Give three questions you could ask teenagers to see if what the article says is
true in your area. (NEAB)
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12. A bus company attempted to estimate the number of people who travel on local
buses in a certain town. They telephoned 100 people in the town one evening and
asked 'Have you travelled by bus in the last week?'
Nineteen people said 'Yes'. The bus company concluded that 19% of the town's
population travel on local buses.
Give 3 criticisms of this method of estimation. (MEG)
25
20
Frequency
15
10
0
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
Time (minutes)
A graph like this is often called a histogram, and is characterised by having a continuous
scale along the horizontal axis. Note that in this case the widths of the bars are all the
same, but this is not always the case, as you will see in the next section. Care though
must be taken about the end points. For example, the first class interval (in minutes)
would normally be 30 ≤ time < 35 , so that a time of 35 minutes would be in the second
class interval.
A frequency polygon could also be used to show the same data, as on the following graph.
Note how it is related to the histogram.
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25
20
Frequency
15
10
0
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
Time (minutes)
Worked Example 1
Use the data shown on the graphs above to answer these questions.
(a) How many people completed the Fun Run in between 40 and 45 minutes?
(b) How many people completed the Fun Run in less than 40 minutes?
(c) How many people completed the Fun Run in less than 1 hour?
Solution
(a) The 40-45 minute interval contains 21 people.
(b) The 30-35 and 35-40 minute intervals must be considered.
There are 10 people in the 30-35 minute interval.
There are 8 people in the 35-40 minute interval.
So there are 10 + 8 = 18 people who complete the run in less than 40 minutes.
(c) The number in each interval is needed.
So the number of people is:
10 + 8 + 21 + 28 + 7 = 74
Worked Example 2
A group of students measured the reaction times of 50 other students. The times are given
below correct to nearest hundredth of a second.
0.44 0.32 0.31 0.47 0.27 0.31 0.40 0.28 0.16 0.26
0.33 0.46 0.41 0.33 0.31 0.28 0.38 0.29 0.17 0.26
0.29 0.40 0.29 0.24 0.41 0.22 0.25 0.47 0.31 0.36
0.49 0.21 0.42 0.43 0.28 0.36 0.24 0.37 0.34 0.27
0.49 0.16 0.29 0.30 0.41 0.27 0.29 0.28 0.40 0.42
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8.6
Solution
First the data must be collected into groups, using a tally chart.
Now that the data has been collected in this way, the histogram below can be drawn.
20
15
Frequency
10
0
0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55
Reaction Time (s)
Worked Example 3
Draw a frequency polygon for the data on the height of children given in the table below.
Height (cm)
Height Frequency
Frequency
150 ≤ h < 155 4
155 ≤ h <160 3
160 ≤ h < 165 6
165 ≤ h <170 8
170 ≤ h < 175 12
175 ≤ h <180 5
180 ≤ h < 185 2
Solution
Points should be placed above the centre of each interval. The height is given by the
frequency. The following graph shows these points.
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15
10
Frequency
5
0
145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190
Height (cm)
Note that points have been placed on the horizontal axis in the intervals that have frequencies
of 0. The points can then be joined to give the frequency polygon below.
15
10
Frequency
5
0
145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190
Height (cm)
Exercises
1. The histogram below shows how the weights of children in one year group were
distributed.
20
15
Frequency
10
0
40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
Weight (kg)
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8.6
25
20
15
Frequency
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600
Weekly Wages (£)
(a) How many people earn between £300 and £350 per week?
(b) How many people earn between £100 and £300 per week?
(c) How many people are employed by the firm?
(d) What are the largest and smallest possible weekly wages that the graph
shows could be paid?
3. An orchard contains 100 apple trees. The weight of apples produced by each tree
in one year was recorded. The results are given in the table .
50 < m ≤ 60 5
60 < m ≤ 70 7
70 < m ≤ 80 13
80 < m ≤ 90 10
90 < m ≤ 100 20
100 < m ≤ 110 22
110 < m ≤ 120 18
120 < m ≤ 130 5
4. A psychologist uses a test in which people have to solve a puzzle. He records the
time it took people to solve the puzzle.
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5. The finishing times for a cross country race were recorded to the nearest minute.
Draw a suitable histogram for the data.
23 38 43 47
27 39 43 48
31 39 43 48
32 40 43 48
32 40 44 50
32 40 44 50
33 41 46 51
34 41 46 51
35 42 46 52
37 42 47 53
6. At the end of a football season a newspaper calculated the average number of goals
scored per match for 100 top footballers.
2.7 1.4 2.9 1.3 2.1 2.1 2.9 2.1 1.7 3.1
1.2 2.0 0.6 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.7 1.6 1.3 1.9
1.3 1.4 1.9 2.1 1.8 0.9 2.1 2.3 1.9 1.3
1.3 0.3 1.2 2.0 1.4 1.7 2.4 1.9 1.7 1.5
2.7 2.2 0.7 1.5 1.6 1.4 2.7 2.0 1.9 2.7
2.1 1.6 0.7 1.5 2.0 0.9 1.6 1.6 1.5 2.6
1.1 2.2 1.8 1.5 1.8 2.6 0.2 1.2 1.4 1.9
1.7 1.4 2.1 2.2 1.5 2.1 2.4 0.5 0.9 1.4
1.8 0.6 1.9 2.6 1.6 2.1 2.0 1.8 1.3 2.0
1.2 2.2 1.4 2.1 1.2 0.4 2.6 1.9 0.9 2.1
Use the data given to draw a suitable histogram and then draw a frequency polygon
on top of the histogram.
7. Two students recorded the time it took drivers of cars to find a space and park in a
car park. They also noted if the drivers were male or female.
Time Taken (mins) 0 <t ≤2 2 < t ≤4 4 <t ≤6 6<t≤8 8 < t ≤ 10 10 < t ≤ 12
Male Drivers 4 11 24 11 3 2
Female Drivers 0 16 21 5 5 8
(a) On the same set of axes draw frequency polygons for male and female
drivers.
(b) What evidence does the graph provide to support the claim that females take
longer to find a space and park than males?
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8.6
Age Frequency
0 ≤ a <10 1800
10 ≤ a < 20 1500
20 ≤ a < 30 1450
30 ≤ a < 40 1600
40 ≤ a < 50 1250
50 ≤ a < 60 1150
60 ≤ a < 70 800
70 ≤ a < 80 500
80 ≤ a < 90 150
9. A hire company owns three types of car which are classified as small, medium and
large. The distance travelled by each car is always recorded.
Distance (miles) 0 < t ≤ 100 100 < t ≤ 200 200 < t ≤ 300 300 < t ≤ 400 400 < t ≤ 500
Small Cars 80 50 30 2 1
Medium Cars 30 45 67 70 10
Large Cars 5 12 16 24 12
(a) On the same set of axes draw frequency polygons for each type of car.
(b) Comment on the graphs you have drawn.
10. A large number of children entered a mathematics competition. Their scores are
listed below.
Investigation
Choose an article of at least 500 words from a newspaper. Record the word lengths (in
terms of number of letters in a word) of 500 successive words in the article. Tabulate the
results in a frequency distribution. Find the mean, mode and median for the word lengths
used.
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11. The graph shows the result of a survey of the times at which pupils arrive at school
one day.
80
60
Number of
Number of
pupils
pupils
40
20
0
0810 0820 0830 0840 0850 0900 0910
Time
Time
How many pupils arrived for school between 0830 and 0850? (SEG)
12. The table below gives information about the expected lifetimes, in hours, of
200 light bulbs.
Lifetime (t) 0 < t ≤ 400 400 < t ≤ 800 800 < t ≤ 1200 1200 < t ≤ 16001600 < t ≤ 2000
Frequency 32 56 90 16 6
100
80
Frequency
60
Frequency40
20
(MEG)
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8.6
Heights of pupils
25
20
15
Frequency
10
0
120 130 140 150 160
Height (cm)
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14. The height of each of 60 plants of type A was measured and recorded.
Number of plants 0 2 3 18 19 18 0
(a) Draw the frequency polygon of these results on a grid like the one below.
20
15
Frequency
Frequency
10
0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Height (cm)
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8.6
20
15
Frequency
Frequency
10
0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Height (cm)
(b) Write down two differences between the two types of plant shown by the
frequency polygons.
(SEG)
0 ≤ w < 40 5
40 ≤ w < 50 6
50 ≤ w < 60 8
60 ≤ w < 70 4
70 ≤ w < 100 2
The way the data have been presented makes it impossible to draw a histogram with equal
class intervals.
In order to keep the histogram fair the area of the bars, rather than the height, must be
proportional to the frequency. So on the vertical scale we plot frequency density instead
of frequency, where
Frequency
Frequency Density =
Class Width
Rewriting the table with an extra column for frequency density, gives
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0 ≤ w < 40 5
5 = 03.125
40
6
40 ≤ w < 50 6 = 17
0.6
10
8
50 ≤ w < 60 8 = 21
0.8
10
60 ≤ w < 70 4 28
4 = 0.4
10
70 ≤ w < 100 2 32
2 = 0.067
30
and you can draw the histogram with frequency density on the vertical axis.
1.0
Frequency
density
0.5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Weight (in grams)
Note
You can see that it is the area that is proportional to the frequency – in fact, a frequency of
1 is represented by 10 little squares.
Worked Example 1
Police officers recorded the speeds of vehicles passing a speed camera on an open road.
Draw a histogram for this data.
0 ≤ v < 30 3
30 ≤ v < 40 17
40 ≤ v < 45 21
45 ≤ v < 50 28
50 ≤ v < 70 32
Solution
The following table shows how the frequency density can be calculated.
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8.7
4
Frequency
density
3
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Speed (mph)
Worked Example 2
The histogram below shows the results of a survey into the height of children in a school.
3 Heightof
Heights of Children
children
Frequency
density
1
0
120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190
Height
Heights (cm)
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Solution
(a) (i) For the 120 to 140 cm interval:
Frequency = 20 × 1.2
= 24 children
Frequency = 5 × 2.4
= 12 children
(b) To find the total, the numbers in each class interval must be found and added
together.
= 24 + 18 + 33 + 14 + 12 + 9 + 11
= 121
Exercises
1. For a project in Biology Sharma gathered data on the length of leaves from a tree
and drew the histogram below.
Lengths of leaves
3.0
Frequency
density
2.0
1.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Length (cm)
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8.7
2. Jennifer collected data on the length of time it took her to travel to school. She
drew the histogram below.
Frequency
density
1
0
5 10 15 20 25 30
Time taken (mins)
3. Fred often travels by train. He kept a record of the time he had to wait when
telephoning his local railway station to enquire about train times.
0 < t ≤ 0.5 8
0.5 < t ≤ 1.0 10
1.0 < t ≤ 3.0 15
3.0 < t ≤ 4.0 12
4.0 < t ≤ 5.0 3
4. A teacher recorded all the scores of the students who took a maths test in his
school. These scores are summarised in the table below.
Score Frequency
0 ≤ t < 35 3
35 ≤ t < 40 7
40 ≤ t < 55 20
55 ≤ t < 70 42
70 ≤ t ≤ 100 16
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5. A survey was carried out to find the weekly income of a group of Year 11 pupils.
The income includes pocket money and wages from part-time jobs.
0 < I ≤ 10 8
10 < I ≤ 15 24
15 < I ≤ 20 19
20 < I ≤ 40 7
6. The distribution of the ages of inhabitants of a village is shown in the table below.
Age Frequency
0-4 10
5-9 12
10 - 19 19
20 - 39 36
40 - 59 30
60 - 64 9
65 - 79 11
80 - 99 3
7. The finishing times to the nearest minute for the competitors in a half-marathon to
complete the race are given below.
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8.7
8. A GCSE examiner recorded the time that it took to mark the essays students wrote in
an exam. The times are in this table.
10 - 12 9
13 - 18 24
19 - 20 21
21 - 30 16
31 - 45 3
9. The age of each person in a coach party is illustrated in the histogram below.
Frequency
density
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Age
10. A sample was taken of the telephone calls to a school switchboard. The lengths of the
telephone calls are recorded, in minutes, in this table.
Number of calls 12 32 19 20 15
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20
15
Frequency
per 1 minute
interval
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
Time in minutes (t)
(MEG)
11. The histogram below represents the number of spectators at professional football
matches one Saturday.
Frequency
Density
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8.7
0 ≤ n < 3000
8.8 Sampling
When conducting a survey it is often impossible to ask every individual who might be
concerned or involved. For example, for a political opinion poll it is only possible to ask
a sample of the population how they would vote.
The term population can be any group about which information is required. For example,
the following could be populations:
Manchester United supporters,
kettles produced in a factory,
adult voters in the UK,
all pupils in your school.
Often conclusions are reached by looking at a sample taken from a population. There are
three main methods for selecting a sample from a population:
Random Sample
The sample is formed by selecting members of the population at random. It is
important to make sure that each member of the population is equally likely to be
selected. Tables of random numbers can be used to help this process but more
mundane methods, such as using numbers from a telephone book or even choosing
a number from a hat of numbers, can be used. Scientific calculators also provide
you with random numbers.
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Systematic Sample
This type of sample is formed by taking members of the population at regular
intervals. For example, by selecting every 5th or every 10th or every 12th member
of the population.
Stratified Sample
The population is split into a number of groups. Random samples are then taken
from each group so that the ratio of the sizes of the sample is the same as the ratio
of the number of members of the groups in the population. For example, if a
population contains 1000 women and 500 men, a stratified sample of total size 75
would contain 50 women and 25 men.
Worked Example 1
1. Mrs Skirton
There are 12 teachers in a small school. A sample of 2. Mrs Pearson
size 4 is to be selected from this population. 3. Mrs Green
(a) Create a systematic sample for the population. 4. Mrs Crocker
5. Mrs Barnes
(b) Create a random sample for the population.
6. Mr Vinner
7. Mr Krishnan
Solution
8. Mr Gadd
(a) As there are 12 teachers, a systematic sample 9. Mr Hampson
could be made by selecting every third 10. Mr Thompson
teacher from the list. This would create a 11. Mr Mobey
sample containing:
12. Mr Grainger
Mrs Green, Mr Vinner, Mr Hampson and Mr Grainger.
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8.8
Worked Example 2
A headteacher wishes to select a stratified sample Year Number of pupils
of 50 pupils from Years 10, 11, 12 and 13. The
table shows how many students are in each year. 10 320
11 300
Solution 12 180
13 150
First find the total number of pupils in the
population.
Total = 320 + 300 + 180 + 150
= 950
320
The fraction of the population in Year 10 is .
950
Exercises
1. A factory contains 24 identical machines which are labelled:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X
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8.8
11 57 42 70 41 12 88 51
32 38 14 65 49 46 18 62 Create a second random sample,
48 20 47 44 56 65 46 36 by starting in a different place in
42 59 61 41 78 42 72 11 the list of random numbers.
50 42 58 78 71 78 12 37
66 08 21 84 94 61 31 30 How many squares do the two
14 64 51 05 53 93 45 86 samples have in common?
93 49 05 27 54 18 64 57
87 61 55 67 23 26 70 75
03 87 19 48 10 69 35 61
42 52 83 74 35 09 13 36
51 43 76 62 91 39 89 75
6. What problems might be encountered if samples are formed in the following ways?
(a) Selecting people at random from a telephone directory.
(b) Selecting every third person entering a shopping arcade.
(c) Selecting people at random at a football match.
(d) Selecting people leaving a golf course in red cars.
8. Describe how you might select a sample if you were asked to conduct a survey to
find out if:
(a) the parents of primary school children were happy with their schools,
(b) users of mobile phones were happy with the service provided,
(c) the local bowling green was properly maintained,
(d) the local public transport services are adequate.
9. (a) In a school there are 420 pupils in the lower school, 310 pupils in the middle
school, and 130 pupils in the upper school.
(i) How many pupils from each part of the school should be included in a
stratified random sample of size 100?
(ii) Explain why a stratified random sample should be taken rather than a
simple random sample.
(b) These 100 pupils were asked to keep a record of the number of hours of
television that they watched in one week.
The results are summarised below.
No. of viewers 7 3 15 35 22 10 6 2
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