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Bar Graphs, Circle Graphs, and Time-Series Graphs

The document discusses different types of graphs including bar graphs, Pareto charts, circle graphs, and time-series graphs. It describes the key features and uses of each graph type. Bar graphs can display quantitative or qualitative data using uniformly sized and spaced bars to represent values or frequencies. Pareto charts are a type of bar graph used in quality control that arranges bars from highest to lowest. Circle graphs visually display proportional parts of a total using wedges of a circle.

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17 views5 pages

Bar Graphs, Circle Graphs, and Time-Series Graphs

The document discusses different types of graphs including bar graphs, Pareto charts, circle graphs, and time-series graphs. It describes the key features and uses of each graph type. Bar graphs can display quantitative or qualitative data using uniformly sized and spaced bars to represent values or frequencies. Pareto charts are a type of bar graph used in quality control that arranges bars from highest to lowest. Circle graphs visually display proportional parts of a total using wedges of a circle.

Uploaded by

tenshazangetsu262
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bar Graphs, Circle Graphs, and Time-Series Graphs

FOCUS POINTS
• Determine types of graphs appropriate for specific data.
• Construct bar graphs, Pareto charts, circle graphs, and time-series graphs.
• Interpret information displayed in graphs.

In this section, we examine other types of graphs, some of which are suitable for qualitative or category data as
well. Let’s start with bar graphs. These are graphs that can be used to display quantitative or qualitative data.

Features of a Bar Graph


1. Bars can be vertical or horizontal.
2. Bars are of uniform width and uniformly spaced.
3. The lengths of the bars represent values of the variable being displayed, the frequency of occurrence,
or the percentage of occurrence. The same measurement scale is used for the length of each bar.
4. The graph is well annotated with title, labels for each bar, and vertical scale or actual value for the
length of each bar

Bar graph
Figure 2-11 shows two bar graphs depicting the life expectancies for men and women born in the designated
year. Let’s analyze the features of these graphs.

SOLUTION: The graphs are called clustered bar graphs because there are two bars for each year of birth. One
bar represents the life expectancy for men, and the other represents the life expectancy for women. The
height of each bar represents the life expectancy (in years).

An important feature illustrated in Figure 2-11(b) is that of a changing scale. Notice that the scale between 0
and 65 is compressed. The changing scale amplifies the apparent difference between life spans for men and
women, as well as the increase in life spans from those born in 1980 to the projected span of those born in
2010.

Changing Scale
Whenever you use a change in scale in a graphic, warn the viewer by using a squiggle on the changed
axis. Sometimes, if a single bar is unusually long, the bar length is compressed with a squiggle in the bar itself.
Quality control is an important aspect of today’s production and service industries. Dr. W. Edwards Deming
was one of the developers of total quality management (TQM). In his book Out of Crisis, he outlines many
strategies for monitoring and improving service and production industries. In particular, Dr. Deming
recommends the use of some statistical methods to organize and analyze data from industries so that sources
of problems can be identified and then corrected. Pareto (pronounced “Pah-ra–y-to–) charts are among the
many techniques used in quality-control programs.

A Pareto chart is a bar graph in which the bar height represents the frequency of an event. In addition, the
bars are arranged from left to right according to decreasing height.
Another popular pictorial representation of data is the circle graph or pie chart. It is relatively safe from
misinterpretation and is especially useful for showing the division of a total quantity into its component parts.
The total quantity, or 100%, is represented by the entire circle. Each wedge of the circle represents a
component part of the total. These proportional segments are usually labeled with corresponding percentages
of the total. Guided Exercise 3 shows how to make a circle graph.

In a circle graph or pie chart, wedges of a circle visually display proportional parts of the total population that
share a common characteristic.

Suppose you begin an exercise program that involves walking or jogging for 30 minutes. You exercise several
times a week but monitor yourself by logging the distance you cover in 30 minutes each Saturday. How do you
display these data in a meaningful way? Making a bar chart showing the frequency of distances you cover might
be interesting, but it does not really show how the distance you cover in 30 minutes has changed over time. A
graph showing the distance covered on each date will let you track your performance over time.
We will use a time-series graph. A time-series graph is a graph showing data measurements in chronological
order. To make a time-series graph, we put time on the horizontal scale and the variable being measured on
the vertical scale. In a basic time-series graph, we connect the data points by line segments.

In a time-series graph, data are plotted in order of occurrence at regular intervals over a period of time.
Data sets composed of similar measurements taken at regular intervals over time are called time series. Time series
are often used in economics, finance, sociology, medicine, and any situation in which we want to study or monitor a
similar measure over a period of time. A time-series graph can reveal some of the main features of a time series.

Time-series data consist of measurements of the same variable for the same subject taken at regular intervals
over a period of time.

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