GCSE: Histograms

Dr J Frost ([email protected])
www.drfrostmaths.com
Objectives: To understand why a histogram is useful for displaying
data, and how to both draw and interpret a histogram.

Last modified: 13th January 2016

 Age (years) Frequency Pablo is hosting a party. He counts how many

15 ≤ a < 20
people are between 15 and 20, and 20 and 50.
15
20 ≤ a < 50 15 Why is below graph somewhat unhelpful.
How could we fix it?

Click to Start
Bromanimation
Frequency

15

10 20 30 40 50
Age
 Age (years) Frequency Let’s presume that within each age group, the

15 ≤ a < 20
ages are evenly spread.
15 Then there would ?
20 ≤ a < 50
3 people of each age in
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
Copy and complete
Weight (w kg) Frequency Frequency Density
0 < w ≤ 10 40 4
?
10 < w ≤ 15 6 1.2
?
15 < w ≤ 35
Freq
52 ? 2.6
35 < w ≤ 45 10 ? 1 F.D. Width

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

3
?
Frequency = 30

10 20 30 40 50
Height (m)
 Start by adding a Frequency
Frequency Density Density column

?
30  30 = 1

?
84 ? graph)
4.2 (using
?
60 6 (using?graph)

40  20? =2
18  30? = 0.6

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
 Determining the frequency density scale
Copy the diagram and table, then work out the scale 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.

Summary
Tips you might give your classmates...
Purpose: Area:
Histograms allow us to The area of a bar is equal
display continuous data to the frequency*.
?
grouped into (potentially ?
* Actually it’s only proportional to it, but
you don’t need to worry about that till A
non-fixed) intervals. Level.

Working out the F.D. scale:

Frequency Density Formula: If the frequency is known and the bar
Frequency Density is height is known, we? can work out the
‘frequency per unit value’, i.e: scale using the formula on the left.

Freq ?
Working out proportion of things (no FD
scale given):
F.D. Width Use any arbitrary scale for FD axis. Use it
? that matches
to find area of region
description. Divide by total area.
Proportion Histogram Questions
Sometimes you have to find the proportion of people/things/animals within some
range of values. Just find the total area, and the area you’re interested in.

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

10 14 18 22 26 Bro Tip: If the frequency

Height (m) density scale is missing, you
can set it to what you like.
Solutions – Questino 2

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

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

Proportion =

This is Q2 on your
worksheet.
Questions

Provided collection of past GCSE questions.

Solutions – Question 1

Answer:

?
Solutions – Question 3

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 4

0.05
8
6? 0.04

0.03
?
0.02

0.01
Solutions – Question 5