Detailed Solutions to Practice #12

If you had difficulty with any part of this practice, read the detailed solution below. If, after doing this, you are still having problems, you may need more review than has been offered by this review. If so, contact your professor for help.

Given the table, construct a bar graph which displays the same information.

1. Determine the following elements of the bar graph from the table
   • Title of the graph--The title of the graph is the same as the title of the table. This means the title of the graph will be:
   Small Corporation's Quarterly Expenditures
   • Label for each axis--The label for each axis comes from the column/row labels. In this table the data is placed in columns, so we will use the column labels.
     • Grouped Data Axis Label--This is the axis that contains the data groups. In this case it is the Yearly Quarter.
     • Frequency Axis Label--This is the axis that contains the frequency counts. In this case it is the Expenses (in dollars).
   • Scale for each axis--Determine the numerical scale for the frequency axis, then the group names for grouped data axis.The scale of each axis is determined by the range of data for each axis. Let's look at each of these separately.
     • Grouped Data Axis Label-- Yearly Quarter
       This data contains four groups. The data is nominal (not ordered) so the groups could be placed in any order. The four groups on the scale are 4 quarters: (1) 1st Qtr, (2) 2nd Qtr, (3) 3rd Qtr, and (4) 4th Qtr.
     • Frequency Axis Label--Expenses (thousands of dollars)
       The scale of the frequency axis is determined by the data. Things that must be considered are: ust incorporate values which range from at least 30,000 to 55,000, the lowest and greatest incomes.
       • It is not necessary to begin the scale at 0.
       • If we begin the scale slightly below 30,000 and extend the scale slightly beyond 55,000 we will have a scale which incorporates all values that we need.
       • A scale ranging from 20,000 to 60,000 is a good choice. It can be broken into intervals of 5,000. Also, since all values are in the thousands we can incorporate this into the label of the axis, to ma

2. Draw a set of axes that you will use to construct your graph
   • Determine which axis will be the frequency axis--(Determine whether bars will go horizontally or vertically.) In this practice, we will place the frequency axis on the vertical axis. You could just as easily have chosen to place it on the horizontal axis.

   Write in axes labels--The frequency axis is labeled Expenses (thousands of dollars), and will be on the vertical axis. For the frequency axis, determine the scale interval--The scale of the frequency axis is from 20,000, or 20 thousand to 60,000, or 60 thousand. We can make the scale start at 20, and have the scale go to 60 (in thousands of dollars). The interval can be 5. This will make it easier to discern individual values, but may distort the overall relationship between groups.

   Small Corporation's Quarterly Expenditures

3. Use the data from the table to draw in the bars on the graph.

   One we have the axes drawn and labeled, we can draw in the bars. At the right is the bar graph that illustrates the data given in the table. Notice that the scale starts at 20, goes to 60, and has an interval of 5. Notice how easy this makes it to determine individual data points. We can also clearly compare the differences between data groups.

   Small Corporation's Quarterly Expenditures

IMPORTANT: If you feel comfortable with the material in this unit, move on to the next unit. If, after reviewing this section, you still feel uncomfortable with this material, you may need more help than is provided in this book. Contact your professor for additional resources on this topic.

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