11.02 Problem solving with line plots
Are you ready?
Can you read information from a line plot?
A set of measurements in inches have been recorded in the table below.
| $15$15 | $16$16 | $17$17 | $15$15 |
| $18$18 | $17$17 | $15$15 | $17$17 |
| $17$17 | $17$17 | $17$17 | $17$17 |
Which of the following line plots correctly shows the measurements?
A
B
C
DWhat is the smallest measurement that was made?
Which measurement was most common?
Learn
We can create a line plot from a data set in order to more easily understand key features of the data set, such as the most common value, and the largest and smallest values.
Once we can see these key features in a line plot, we can also make calculations involving them to solve problems about the set of data. For instance, we might want to know the difference between the smallest and largest values in the data set, or we might want to know how many more times one value appears than another value.
Make sure to look out for keywords that tell us what operation we can use to solve the problem. Some keywords for addition and subtraction are:
| addition | subtraction |
|---|---|
| more | less |
| in total | remaining |
| plus | take away |
| sum | difference |
Apply
Question 1
A set of measurements are shown in the line plot below.
Which measurement was recorded the most number of times?
How much smaller is the most common measurement than the largest measurement?
Line plots are a way to represent sets of data visually, and can make it easier to see key features of the data set.
Once we have the key features, we can then solve problems about the set of data.