QUANTITATIVE

METHOD
Lecture 7:
Representing Data
Scope and Coverage
 This topic will cover:
 Types of data
 Representing data using:
 Pie charts
 Frequency diagrams
 Histograms
 Calculating mean, median and mode
Learning Outcomes
 By the end of this topic, students will be able to:
 Understand the difference between discrete and
continuous data
 Construct a pie chart
 Represent data using a frequency diagram or
histogram
 Calculate the mean, median and mode of a set of
data
 Calculate the estimated mean from continuous
data
What You Should Already Know:
 How to use tally marks to produce a frequency table from
raw data
 How to produce a simple bar chart from a frequency
table
 How to group data into a grouped frequency table
Qualitative and Quantitative Data
 Qualitative Data is non-numerical
E.g. Colour of car, type of car

 Quantitative Data is numerical

E.g. Number of cars sold, car mileage, height of car
Discrete or Continuous?
 Discrete data can be counted. They can take particular
values
e.g. Number of children, number of trees in a garden.
• Continuous data results when measuring things like
length, time and mass. It cannot be measured
exactly
e.g. The time taken to run 100m. It could be 9s or 9.8s or 9.81s. It can
also be measured more accurately.
Discrete or continuous?
a) Number of aces served by Roger Federer per match
b) The heights of the Chinese basketball team
c) The shoe sizes of the British women's hockey team
d) The times from the 400m race in the Olympics
Pie Charts
A pie chart is a circular diagram split into sections.
The angle of each sector of the pie chart is in
proportion to the amount of information it represents.
The angles of the sectors in a pie chart add up to 360°.

This pie chart represents

what a group of people Email

use their computer for. Games

Work
Internet
Example
A survey is carried out of how long shoppers
spend in the
supermarket. Draw a pie chart to represent the
data. Time spent (mins) Frequency Angle
> 10 15
360° represents the
10 < x < 30 27
whole circle. Calculate
> 30 18
the proportion that each
frequency value will take
up. So 15/60 = 0.25 so the angle is 0.25 x 360 = 90°.
What are the other two angles?
Time spent (mins) Frequency Angle
> 10 15 90°
10 < x < 30 27 162° To draw the pie chart
> 30 18 108°  Draw a circle
 Use a protractor to
measure the angles
and draw the sectors.
> 10  Label the sectors or
10 ≤ x < 30
use a key.
> 30
Alternatively – use
Excel!
Frequency Diagrams
 Representing discrete data
 A bar chart can be used to represent discrete data
 Representing continuous data
 A frequency diagram or frequency polygon is used to
represent continuous data
 A frequency diagram has a numerical scale along the
horizontal axis and there are no gaps between the bars
Grouped Continuous Data
 The table below shows length of time it takes to
serve meals at The Restaurant
 The data is continuous and Time, t(min) Frequency
therefore can be represented 10≤ t < 15 1
using a frequency diagram 15≤ t < 20 7
20≤ t < 25 16
25≤ t < 30 25
30≤ t < 35 19
35≤ t < 40 2
Frequency Diagrams
This is a frequency diagram of the data from The
30 Restaurant.
25

20
Frequency

15

10

0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time in minutes
Joining the Midpoints
A frequency polygon can be drawn by joining the midpoints of the
30 bars.

25

20
Frequency

15

10

0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time in minutes
Frequency Polygon
Removing the bars, leaves a frequency polygon.
30

25

20
Frequency

15

10

0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time in minutes
Comparing Data
Data on serving times is collected from another restaurant.

The Bistro

Time, t(min) Frequency

10≤ t < 15 8
15≤ t < 20 21
20≤ t < 25 29
25≤ t < 30 6
30≤ t < 35 4
35≤ t < 40 2

Frequency polygons can be drawn for The Restaurant and The Bistro on the same
axes to compare the data.
Comparing Frequency Polygons
Use the polygon to compare the time taken to serve food at the
two restaurants. Bistro
Restaurant
30

25

20
Frequency

15

10

0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time in minutes
Histograms
 A histogram is a type of frequency diagram for grouped continuous
data
 Sometimes frequency distributions have groups of different sizes. A
histogram uses frequency density so that the area of the bar represents
the frequency no matter how wide it is
 Each group or class is represented by a bar. There are no gaps
between the bars
 The area of each bar is proportional to the frequency of the class it
represents
Frequency density = frequency
class width
 The frequency density is calculated for each class and gives the height
of each bar
 The vertical axis of the histogram is labelled “frequency density”
Histograms
 Jimmy recorded the length of all the calls he made at
work in a week
 Draw a histogram from the data

Length of call, x, Frequency, f Class width Frequency

minutes (minutes) density
0 ≤ t < 10 5 10 5÷10 = 0.5
10 ≤ t < 15 15 5 15÷5 = 3
15 ≤ t < 20 18 5 18÷5 = 3.6
20 ≤ t < 30 16 10 16÷10 = 1.6
 It is similar to a frequency diagram, only the vertical axis is
frequency density instead of frequency
4

3.5

3
Frequency Density

2.5

1.5

0.5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Length of call (minutes)
Finding the Average
 A set of values is called a distribution
 From a distribution, statistics can be calculated to
help you analyse the data and draw conclusions
 Averages are used to summarise what the data
shows. There are 3 types of average: mean, median
and mode
 The range and standard deviation of a distribution
can also be found
Mean, Median and Mode
 The mode is the most common value in a set of data
 The median is the middle value in a set of data when put
in order
 The mean is the sum of all the values divided by the
number of values
E.g. Stan threw ten sets of three darts at a board. His scores
were:
34, 45, 20, 41, 60, 83, 70, 31, 26, 60
Find the mean, median and mode of his scores.
Mode = 60 Median = (41 + 45)/2 = 43 Mean = 470/10 = 47
Comparing Data Sets
 Stan’s mate, Jim, throws ten sets of darts too. Here
are his scores:
43 5 180 80 36 24 60 88 60 100
Find the mean, median and mode.
Compare with Stan’s scores.
Who is the better player?
Which average is the best to use to compare?
Averages from a Frequency Table
 The following table shows the number of cars Colin sold
per day in a month:

No. of sales per Frequency

day
0 1
1 3
2 8
3 14
Find the4 mean, median and
5 mode number of sales per day.
Finding the Average
No. of sales Frequency Sales x
per day frequency
0 1 0x1=0
1 3 1x3=3
2 8 2 x 8 = 16
3 14 3 x 14 = 42
4 5 4 x 5 = 20
31 81
 Mode is the most common = 3 sales
 Median is the 16th value = 3 sales
 Mean = Total sales x frequency/Total frequency
= 81/31 = 2.61 (3sf)
Grouped Data
The frequency table below shows a grouped frequency
distribution for the heights of a group of 65 16 year olds.

It does not show the exact

values of the data.
Instead of finding the mode,
we use the modal class.
Here the modal class is 170 ≤ h
< 175.
Estimated Mean
Find the midpoint of each group and then follow the same steps as
previously.

f x
157.5 315
162.5 975
167.5 3015
172.5 4312.5
177.5 1597.5
182.5 730
187.5 187.5
65 11132.5
Calculating the estimated mean
 Estimated Mean = ∑fx
∑x
= 11132.5
65
= 171.3cm (1dp)
Example
Jonny tends to stay late at work. He recorded how long for
over a month.
Time (mins) Frequency Midpoint (x) f   x
0 ≤ t < 20 6 10 d
20 ≤ t < 40 7 30 210
40 ≤ t < 60 3 c 150
a ≤ t < 80 b 70 350
80 ≤ t < 100 9 90 810
Totals 30   e

Fill in the missing bits of information in the table and calculate the
estimated mean.
What is the modal class?
Recap
 Describe the difference between discrete and
continuous data
 What different ways are there to represent the data?
 What are the three types of average and how do you
find them?
 Why can you only find the estimated mean from
grouped data?
LECTURE 7 – REPRESENTING
DATA
Any Questions?