Three Popular Data Displays

This section elaborates on how to describe data. In particular, you will learn about the relative frequency histogram. Complete the exercises and check your answers.

Relative Frequency Histograms

In our example of the exam scores in a statistics class, five students scored in the 80s. The number 5 is the frequency of the group labeled "80s". Since there are 30 students in the entire statistics class, the proportion who scored in the 80s is 5/30. The number 5/30, which could also be expressed as 0.16–≈.16670.16-≈.1667, or as 16.67%, is the relative frequency of the group labeled "80s". Every group (the 70s, the 80s, and so on) has a relative frequency. We can thus construct a diagram by drawing for each group, or class, a vertical bar whose length is the relative frequency of that group. For example, the bar for the 80s will have length 5/30 unit, not 5 units. The diagram is a relative frequency histogram for the data, and is shown in Figure 2.4 "Relative Frequency Histogram". It is exactly the same as the frequency histogram except that the vertical axis in the relative frequency histogram is not frequency but relative frequency.

Figure 2.4 Relative Frequency Histogram

The same procedure can be applied to any collection of numerical data. Classes are selected, the relative frequency of each class is noted, the classes are arranged and indicated in order on the horizontal axis, and for each class a vertical bar, whose length is the relative frequency of the class, is drawn. The resulting display is a relative frequency histogram for the data. A key point is that now if each vertical bar has width 1 unit, then the total area of all the bars is 1 or 100%.

Although the histograms in Figure 2.3 "Frequency Histogram" and Figure 2.4 "Relative Frequency Histogram" have the same appearance, the relative frequency histogram is more important for us, and it will be relative frequency histograms that will be used repeatedly to represent data in this text. To see why this is so, reflect on what it is that you are actually seeing in the diagrams that quickly and effectively communicates information to you about the data. It is the relative sizes of the bars. The bar labeled "70s" in either figure takes up 1/3 of the total area of all the bars, and although we may not think of this consciously, we perceive the proportion 1/3 in the figures, indicating that a third of the grades were in the 70s. The relative frequency histogram is important because the labeling on the vertical axis reflects what is important visually: the relative sizes of the bars.

When the size n of a sample is small only a few classes can be used in constructing a relative frequency histogram. Such a histogram might look something like the one in panel (a) of Figure 2.5 "Sample Size and Relative Frequency Histograms". If the sample size n were increased, then more classes could be used in constructing a relative frequency histogram and the vertical bars of the resulting histogram would be finer, as indicated in panel (b) of Figure 2.5 "Sample Size and Relative Frequency Histograms". For a very large sample the relative frequency histogram would look very fine, like the one in (c) of Figure 2.5 "Sample Size and Relative Frequency Histograms". If the sample size were to increase indefinitely then the corresponding relative frequency histogram would be so fine that it would look like a smooth curve, such as the one in panel (d) of Figure 2.5 "Sample Size and Relative Frequency Histograms".

Figure 2.5 Sample Size and Relative Frequency Histograms

It is common in statistics to represent a population or a very large data set by a smooth curve. It is good to keep in mind that such a curve is actually just a very fine relative frequency histogram in which the exceedingly narrow vertical bars have disappeared. Because the area of each such vertical bar is the proportion of the data that lies in the interval of numbers over which that bar stands, this means that for any two numbers a and b, the proportion of the data that lies between the two numbers a and b is the area under the curve that is above the interval (a,b) in the horizontal axis. This is the area shown in Figure 2.6 "A Very Fine Relative Frequency Histogram". In particular the total area under the curve is 1, or 100%.

Figure 2.6 A Very Fine Relative Frequency Histogram