Overview:
Graphs and tables are good ways to show mathematical relationships and display data. They are an important part of solving problems and illustrating trends. Although the same information can be listed in a paragraph of facts, it is much harder to follow.
What about Tables?
Writing data in the form of a table is one way of organizing data to solve problems. Suppose the problem is to summarize the types of items sold in a student snack bar. A list of sales for each day will be harder to read than organizing them into a table. Also, patterns can be more clearly seen if the table is organized.
What about Bar Graphs?
Bar graphs can organize the same amount of data as in a table, but in a way that shows the amounts or frequencies of the data against a uniform scale. The interval of the scale is chosen so that all the values will fit. For example, suppose the sales on a particular day include 26 soft pretzels with cheese, 17 apple cups, 52 frozen yogurts, and 9 vegetable medleys. All the values could be represented on a scale from 0 to 60. A double bar graph could be used when comparing the same values over different times, such as the items sold in September compared with the items sold in May.
What about Circle Graphs?
Sometimes the data can be represented in a circle graph. Since the measurement of a total circle is 3600, each section of the circle graph will be a fraction of the total measurement. Half of the circle will be represented by 1800, one-fourth by 900, one-eighth by 450, and so on. In the sales example, 52 frozen yogurts equal half of the total sales for the day, and 26 soft pretzels equal one-quarter of the sales for the day.
What about Coordinate Graphs?
Coordinate graphs are used when the data sets can be represented by ordered pairs, and when a bar graph or circle graph would take up too much space. For example, if the outside temperature is measured at different times of the day, a coordinate graph can be generated with the time of day on one axis and the temperature in degrees on the other axis. Each point will correspond to a measure, and the graph will measure the change in temperature that occurs with time.
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