Do you know how to count a tally ? Tally marks are in groups of 5. Once there are 4 vertical ones written, the fifth one is drawn horizontally through them.

Examples

Example 1

Five students tallied cats that they saw on the way home from school one day.

This image shows a tally count of the number of cats. Ask your teacher for more information.

How many cats did they see all together?

Worked Solution

Create a strategy

Count the total number of tally marks given in the table.

Apply the idea

A vertical line represents 1 count while a group of tally marks with a horizontal line in the center represents a total of 5 counts.

Looking at the tally table, there are a 6 groups of 5 tally marks with a horizontal line and 8 vertical lines. Adding all these, we get:

\displaystyle \text{Total cats}	\displaystyle =	\displaystyle 6\times5 +8	Add the tallies
	\displaystyle =	\displaystyle 38

Idea summary

In a tally a vertical line represents 1 count while a group of tally marks with a horizontal (or diagonal) line through 4 vertical lines represents a total of 5 counts.

Create and interpret tables

This video has a look at using tables to record information and answer questions.

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Examples

Example 2

Ms Williams has the following fruit stickers in her drawer:

An image of 2 apples, 4 lemons, 5 oranges and 1 bunch of grapes.

Count the number of each type of sticker and fill in the table.

Fruit	Number of Stickers
\text{Lemon}	4
\text{Apple}
\text{Grapes}
\text{Orange}

Worked Solution

Create a strategy

Count the number of times each fruit appears and put that number in the table next to that fruit.

Apply the idea

There are 2 apples, 1 bunch of grapes and 5 oranges.

Fruit	Number of Stickers
\text{Lemon}	4
\text{Apple}	2
\text{Grapes}	1
\text{Orange}	5

Which sticker was most common?

Worked Solution

Create a strategy

Look at the numbers in the table and choose the fruit with the highest number.

Apply the idea

Orange is the most common sticker because it had the highest number.

The correct answer is option B.

Idea summary

Frequency means how often something occurs, or how many times it is counted.

Outcomes

MA3-18SP

uses appropriate methods to collect data and constructs, interprets and evaluates data displays, including dot plots, line graphs and two-way tables

14.03 Tables

Ideas

Are you ready?

Examples

Example 1

Create and interpret tables

Examples

Example 2

Outcomes

MA3-18SP

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