Introduction to Probability

and Statistics
Thirteenth Edition

Chapter 1
Describing Data with
Graphs
 Variables and Data
• A variable is a characteristic that
changes or varies over time and/or
for different individuals or objects
under consideration.
• Examples: Hair color, white blood
cell count, time to failure of a
computer component.
 Definitions
• An experimental unit is the individual
or object on which a variable is
measured.
• A measurement results when a
variable is actually measured on an
experimental unit.
• A set of measurements, called data,
can be either a sample or a
population.
 Example
• Variable
–Hair color
• Experimental unit
–Person
• Typical Measurements
–Brown, black, blonde, etc.
 Example
• Variable
–Time until a
light bulb burns out
• Experimental unit
–Light bulb
• Typical Measurements
–1500 hours, 1535.5 hours,
etc.
 How many variables
have you measured?
• Univariate data: One variable is
measured on a single experimental unit.
• Bivariate data: Two variables are
measured on a single experimental unit.
• Multivariate data: More than two
variables are measured on a single
experimental unit.
Types of Variables

Qualitative Quantitative

Discrete Continuous
 Types of Variables
•Qualitative variables measure a quality
or characteristic on each experimental
unit.
•Examples:
•Hair color (black, brown, blonde…)
•Make of car (Dodge, Honda, Ford…)
•Gender (male, female)
•State of birth (California, Arizona,….)
 Types of Variables
•Quantitative variables measure a
numerical quantity on each
experimental unit.
Discrete if it can assume only a
finite or countable number of values.
Continuous if it can assume the
infinitely many values corresponding
to the points on a line interval.
 Examples
• For each orange tree in a grove, the
number of oranges is measured.
– Quantitative discrete
• For a particular day, the number of cars
entering a college campus is measured.
– Quantitative discrete
• Time until a light bulb burns out
– Quantitative continuous
Graphing Qualitative Variables
• Use a data distribution to describe:
– What values of the variable have
been measured
– How often each value has occurred
• “How often” can be measured 3 ways:
– Frequency
– Relative frequency = Frequency/n
– Percent = 100 x Relative frequency
 Example
• A bag of M&Ms contains 25
candies: m m m m m m m m m m
m m m m m m m m m m
• Raw Data: m m m m m
• Statistical Table:
Color Tally Frequency Relative Percent
Frequency
Red mmm 3 3/25 = .12 12%
Blue mmmmmm 6 6/25 = .24 24%
Green mm mm 4 4/25 = .16 16%
Orange mmmmm 5 5/25 = .20 20%
Brown mm m 3 3/25 = .12 12%
Yellow mmmm 4 4/25 = .16 16%
 6

Graphs
5

Frequency 4

2 Bar Chart
1

0
Brown Yellow Red Blue Orange Green
Color

Green Brown
16.0% 12.0%

Yellow

Pie Chart Orange

20.0%
16.0%

Red
12.0%

Blue
24.0%
 Graphing Quantitative
Variables
• A single quantitative variable measured for
different population segments or for different
categories of classification can be graphed
using a pie or bar chart.
chart
5
AABig
BigMac
Mac
hamburger
hamburgercosts
costs
4

Cost of a Big Mac ($)

$4.90
$4.90ininSwitzerland,
Switzerland, 3

$2.90
$2.90ininthe
theU.S.
U.S.and
and 2

$1.86
$1.86ininSouth
South 1
Africa.
Africa.
0
Switzerland U.S. South Africa
Country
• A single quantitative variable measured
over time is called a time series.
series It can
be graphed using a line or bar chart.
chart
CPI: All Urban Consumers-Seasonally Adjusted
Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
178.10 177.60 177.50 177.30 177.60 178.00 178.60
 Dotplots
• The simplest graph for quantitative data
• Plots the measurements as points on a horizontal axis,
stacking the points that duplicate existing points.
• Example: The set 4, 5, 5, 7, 6

4 5 6 7
 Stem and Leaf Plots
• A simple graph for quantitative data
• Uses the actual numerical values of each
data point.
––Divide
Divide eacheach measurement
measurement into into two
two parts:
parts: the
the
stem
stem andand the the leaf.
leaf.
––List
List the
the stems
stems in in aa column,
column, with
with aa vertical
vertical line
line
to
to their
their right.
right.
––For
For each
each measurement,
measurement, recordrecord the the leaf
leaf
portion
portion in in the
the same
same row row as
as its
its matching
matching stem.stem.
––Order
Order the the leaves
leaves from
from lowest
lowest to to highest
highest inin
each
each stem.
stem.
––Provide
Provide aa key key toto your
your coding.
coding.
 Example
The prices ($) of 18 brands of walking shoes:
90 70 70 70 75 70 65 68 60
74 70 95 75 70 68 65 40 65

4 0 4 0
Reorder
5 5

6 580855 6 055588

7 00050405 7 00000045
0 5

8 8

9 05 9 05
 Interpreting Graphs:
Location and Spread

•• Where
Where is
is the
the data
data centered
centered on
on the
the
horizontal
horizontal axis,
axis, and
and how
how does
does itit
spread
spread out
out from
from the
the center?
center?
Interpreting Graphs: Shapes
Mound shaped and
symmetric (mirror
images)
Skewed right: a few
unusually large
measurements
Skewed left: a few
unusually small
measurements

Bimodal: two local peaks

 Interpreting Graphs:
Outliers

No Outliers Outlier

• Are there any strange or

unusual measurements that
stand out in the data set?
 Example
• A quality control process measures the diameter
of a gear being made by a machine (cm). The
technician records 15 diameters, but inadvertently
makes a typing mistake on the second entry.

1.991 1.891 1.991 1.988 1.993 1.989 1.990 1.988

1.988 1.993 1.991 1.989 1.989 1.993 1.990 1.994
 Relative Frequency
Histograms
• A relative frequency histogram for a
quantitative data set is a bar graph in which the
height of the bar shows “how often” (measured
as a proportion or relative frequency)
measurements fall in a particular class or
subinterval.

Create Stack and draw bars

intervals
 Relative Frequency Histograms
• Divide the range of the data into 5-12
subintervals of equal length.
• Calculate the approximate width of the
subinterval as Range/number of subintervals.
• Round the approximate width up to a
convenient value.
• Use the method of left inclusion,
inclusion including the
left endpoint, but not the right in your tally.
• Create a statistical table including the
subintervals, their frequencies and relative
frequencies.
 Relative Frequency Histograms
• Draw the relative frequency
histogram,
histogram plotting the subintervals on
the horizontal axis and the relative
frequencies on the vertical axis.
• The height of the bar represents
– The proportion of measurements falling in
that class or subinterval.
– The probability that a single
measurement, drawn at random from the
set, will belong to that class or subinterval.
 Example
The ages of 50 tenured faculty at a
state university.
• 34 48 70 63 52 52 35 50 37 43 53 43 52 44
• 42 31 36 48 43 26 58 62 49 34 48 53 39 45
• 34 59 34 66 40 59 36 41 35 36 62 34 38 28
• 43 50 30 43 32 44 58 53

• We choose to use 6 intervals.

• Minimum class width = (70 – 26)/6 = 7.33
• Convenient class width = 8
• Use 6 classes of length 8, starting at 25.
Age Tally Frequency Relative Percent
Frequency
25 to < 33 1111 5 5/50 = .10 10%
33 to < 41 1111 1111 1111 14 14/50 = .28 28%
41 to < 49 1111 1111 111 13 13/50 = .26 26%
49 to < 57 1111 1111 9 9/50 = .18 18%
57 to < 65 1111 11 7 7/50 = .14 14%
65 to < 73 11 2 2/50 = .04 4%

14/50

12/50
Relative frequency

10/50

8/50

6/50

4/50

2/50

0
25 33 41 49 57 65 73
Ages
 14/50

Describing 12/50

Relative frequency
10/50

the 8/50

6/50

Distribution 4/50

2/50

0
25 33 41 49 57 65 73
Ages

Shape? Skewed right

Outliers? No.
What proportion of the (14 + 5)/50 = 19/50 = .38
tenured faculty are
younger than 41?
What is the probability that (8 + 7 + 2)/50 = 17/50 = .34
a randomly selected
faculty member is 49 or
older?
 Key Concepts
I. How Data Are Generated
1. Experimental units, variables, measurements
2. Samples and populations
3. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate data
II. Types of Variables
1. Qualitative or categorical
2. Quantitative
a. Discrete
b. Continuous
III. Graphs for Univariate Data Distributions
1. Qualitative or categorical data
a. Pie charts
b. Bar charts
 Key Concepts
2. Quantitative data
a. Pie and bar charts
b. Line charts
c. Dotplots
d. Stem and leaf plots
e. Relative frequency histograms
3. Describing data distributions
a. Shapes—symmetric, skewed left, skewed right,
unimodal, bimodal
b. Proportion of measurements in certain intervals
c. Outliers