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SEMINAR PAPER
ON
PRESENTED
BY
FPA/SA/15/1-0018
SUBMITTED TO
STATISTICS
AUGUST 2016
Abstract
Recognizing and interpreting variability in data lies at the heart of statistical reasoning. Since
graphical displays should facilitate communication about data, statistical literacy should include an
understanding of how variability in data can be gleaned from a graph. This paper identifies two
major types of graphs that students typically encounter—histograms and bar charts. These graphs all
share the superficial similarity of employing bars, and yet the methods to perceive variability in the
data differ dramatically. This paper provide comparisons within each graph type for the purpose of
developing insight into what variability between them and how it is evident within the data’s
associated graph. Graphical aids were introduced to visualize variability for histograms and bar
charts, which could easily be tied to numerical estimates of variability.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Bar charts and histogram have the type of data that they can represent, the author has being able to
shed more light on when it is appropriate to apply bar chart and histogram respectively.
Graphs and charts condense large amounts of information into easy-to-understand formats that clearly
and effectively communicate important points. In selecting how best to present your data, think about
the purpose of your graph or chart and what you want to present, then decide which variables you
want to include and whether they should be expressed as frequencies, percentages, or categories.
When you decide what kind of graph or chart best illustrates your data, you should consider what
type of data you are working with. Categorical data are grouped into non-overlapping categories
(such as grade, race, and yes or no responses). Bar graph is useful for displaying categorical data.
Continuous data are measure don a scale or continuum (such as weight or test scores).
Histograms are useful for displaying continuous data.
A bar graph is composed of discrete bars that represent different categories of data. The
length or height of the bar is equal to the quantity within that category of data. Bar graphs are best
used to compare values across categories.
A histogram has connected bars that display the frequency or proportion of cases that
fall within defined intervals or columns. The bars on the histogram can be of varying width and
typically display continuous data.
A Chinese proverbs says “A good picture is worth a thousand words” , to a layperson figures and
numerals seems to be meaningless until it has been duly analyzed, it is quite obvious that most of the
students in secondary school and higher institutions do not really know the difference between bar
charts and histogram let alone applying them in the analyses of data, this study has really filled the
gap by providing the difference between this two crucial graphical and diagrammatic representations
and when it is appropriate to applying them for the analysis of data.
1.2 objective of the study
This study is focused on the application of bar charts and histogram for data analysis. Specifically,
the study intend to:
The scope this study is to find out the difference between bar chart and histogram in respect to the
type of data that they analyze, and also to know the similarity between this two data presentations.
What is a bar chart? Bar charts are a type of chart that are used to display and compare the number,
frequency or other measure (e.g. mean) for different discrete categories of data. In other words bar
chart is set of regular rectangular bars that are either in horizontal or vertical forms with uniform
space interval.
What is histogram? A Histogram is a graphical display of numerical data in the form of upright
bars, with the area of each bar representing frequency. In other words, this is a set of bars with no
space interval that can either be regular or irregular; it is strictly used to represent data within interval
that is continuous data or class mark (mid-class).
CHAPTER TWO
In this study, it is a necessity to present the literary works of some authors who have made
contributions in this area of study. Thus this chapter deals with related works to the area of this
research in relation to the application of bar chart and histogram
According to S.C Gupta (2012), diagrams and graphs are very important, convincing, appealing and
easily understood method of presenting statistical data. Data can be presented in various types of
ways and form that could include lines, points, bars, circles, rectangle, cubes, etc., and they can also
be in form of pictures, maps and charts. In other words data can either be represented in a graphical
form or a diagrammatic form, data can be represented on a line diagram, bar charts, histogram,
pictogram, square diagram, pie chart, pyramid, cartogram and the likes of them.
Amidst all this form of diagrammatic and graphical tools exists two important and widely used
representations- Histogram and Bar-chart, although it should be clearly noted that histogram is not
bar chart and bar chart is not histogram, nevertheless, histogram is a form of bar chart but never a bar
chart, in that, histogram are graphical and bar chart are diagrammatic, in respect to C.A Gupta (2012),
in distinguishing between graph and diagram, in the construction of graph, generally graph paper is
used which helps to study the mathematical relationship between two variable, on the other hand
diagrams are generally constructed on a plane paper and are used for comparison only and not for
studying the relationship between variables.
2.2 Methodology
This study is descriptive; data analyzed were obtained from existing text and were presented
using bar charts and histogram for easy comprehension.
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Findings
3.1.1 Bar Charts: A bar chart is a type of graph that uses the heights of the bars to convey information. It’s
easy to take a quick look at a bar chart and pick out the highest and lowest bars, and therefore get some
information about the data.
~ Vertical Approach
~ Horizontal Approach
Simple Bar Chart: This is the simplest form of bar chart; it is a one scale chart.
Example; represent the following data on a simple bar chart.
Sex Frequency
Male 165
Female 102
Total 267
300 Total
200
female
100
male
0
male female 0
Total 200
400
Horizontal Vertical
Approach Approach
Multiple Bar Charts: This is used to represent two or more set of inter-related phenomena or
variable, in other words, these charts enable comparisons of more than one variable to be
made the same time.
Example: represent the following on a multiple bar chart.
0
male female Total 0 50 100 150
Horizontal Vertical
Approach Approach
Two-directional bar chart - A bar chart can use either horizontal or vertical bars. A two-directional
bar chart indicates both the positive and negative values. It is otherwise known as Deviation Bars or
Bilateral Bar Chart it is used to depict plus (surplus) and minus (deficit). Example the highest/lowest
temperature of various countries.
Example;
3.1.2 Histogram: Histograms are diagrams of frequency distribution for continuous data. In
appearance they are similar to bar charts, but there are some important differences. The most
important difference is that histograms are only used for continuous data, so the horizontal
axis has a continuous scale. Bars are drawn on this scale, so their width, as well as their
height, has a definite meaning. Histogram is used to visualize distribution shape, center,
range, variation and also estimate the modal value of the continuous distribution.
Remark 1: The height of a histogram does not symbolize the frequency of the distribution but
the density of the distribution.
Remark 2: Histogram can be constructed for a distribution with equal class interval and
unequal class interval
Remark 3:Histogram is applicable only to continuous data. Such as height, weight and so on.
In histogram the bars have to touch each other unlike in bar chart.
3.1.2.1 Part of a histogram
A histogram is made up of five distinct parts which includes:
1. Title: The title briefly describes the information that is contained in the Histogram.
2. Horizontal or X-Axis: The horizontal or X-axis shows you the scale of values into which the
measurements fit. These measurements are generally grouped into intervals to help you summarize
large data sets. Individual data points are not displayed.
3. Bars: The bars have two important characteristics—height and width. The height represents the
number of times the values within an interval occurred. The width represents the length of the interval
covered by the bar. It is the same for all bars.
4. Vertical or Y-Axis: The vertical or Y-axis is the scale that shows you the number of times the
values within an interval occurred. The number of times is also referred to as "frequency."
5. Legend: The legend provides additional information that documents where the data came from and
how the measurements were gathered.
For example: Represent the following data on a histogram
Interval Frequency
50-54 4
55-59 8
60-64 2
65-69 5
70-74 3
Graph of frequency against interval
9
8
Frequency/ density 7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74
Class Interval
2 It contains regular space interval between bars. No space interval exists between bars.
3 It is used to compare frequencies It can be used to measure frequencies of
data in distribution.
4 It is used to display categorical data (discrete It is used to present continuous data,
data) example; gender, color…etc. example; height, weight… etc.
4.0 SUMMARY
Histograms are diagrams of frequency distributions for continuous data. They represent
frequencies by areas and are useful in further analyses. It is sometimes difficult to draw a reasonable
histogram. While, bar charts can give flexible presentations. They use bars to represent categories,
with the length of each bar proportional to the number of observations in the category.
4.1 CONCLUSION
Both bar charts and histogram enhance the presentation of data, but it should be noted that bar
chart is not histogram and vice versa, because bar chart is diagrammatic and used to display discrete
distribution, while histogram is graphical and used to present continuous distribution of value
between interval, This study have identified the various types and approaches of bar chart and it uses,
also the definition, parts and uses of histogram, with both the differences and similarities of bar charts
and histogram, above all, when it is appropriate to use each of them.
4.2 RECOMMENDATION
For effective use of both bar charts and histogram, students are hereby advice to make constant
practice in their closest
REFERENCES
1. Ethan D. Bolker andMaura B. Mast(2007) Bar graphs, pie charts and histograms
2. www.google.com
3. Journal of Statistics Education, Volume 18, Number 2 (2010)