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7.02 Picture graphs and column graphs

Lesson

Column graphs

A column graph is a graph used to display relative quantities of data in different categories. There is a wide range of topics where this type of graph can be useful. For example the number of tourists visiting different destinations in a month, the number of people with certain eye colours in a class or the popularity of the top ten YouTube channels. 

Eye colour in a class

 

Column graph features to remember
  • Title the graph clearly
  • Label each axis
  • Label each category and give the vertical axis a clear scale
  • Make sure the columns are equal widths and equally spaced
  • Make sure that the height of the column matches the value it represents which is often the frequency of the category (how often that outcome occurred)

Use the following applet to explore creating a column graph.

 

Practice questions

Question 1

Miss Yen recorded her students' favourite pets in the column graph below.

Student's favorite petsPetsNumber of students51015HamsterDogCatFishBird

A bar graph titled "Student's favorite pets" displays the preferences of an unspecified number of students for five types of pets: dogs, hamsters, birds, cats, and fish. The vertical axis is labeled "Number of students" and has a scale that goes from 0 to 15 in increments of 5. Each category of pet has a corresponding bar that indicates the number of students who favor that pet. The bar for Hamster shows a count of 6. The bar for Dog shows a count of 7. The bar for Cat shows a count of 4. The bar for Fish shows a count of 8. The bar for Bird shows a count of 11.  
  1. Which type of pet is most popular?

    Fish

    A

    Bird

    B

    Hamster

    C

    Cat

    D

    Dog

    E
  2. Which pet is least popular?

    Bird

    A

    Cat

    B

    Fish

    C

    Dog

    D

    Hamster

    E
  3. How many students picked a Fish as their favourite pet?

  4. How many students were surveyed in total?

Question 2

John had $7$7 blue marbles, $4$4 black marbles, $8$8 yellow marbles, $13$13 white marbles, and $6$6 red marbles. Use this information to complete the column graph.

  1. MarblesColorNumber of Marbles51015blueblackyellowwhitered

Picture graphs

A picture graph is very similar to a column graph in that is displays the relative size of data in different categories. It differs by using using pictures or symbols to represent data rather than a column. Picture graphs have a key, which explains what each symbol represents.

For example the following picture graph displays the number of glasses of water $6$6 students drank in a week. In this case, each glass represents $6$6 glasses of water, thus, we can see that Conrad consumed $5.5\times6=33$5.5×6=33 glasses of water.

Practice questions

Question 3

It’s "Back to school" time and a shop recorded the number of pens they sold this week.

Day Number of pens sold
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Where represents $5$5 pens.

 

  1. How many pens were sold on Wednesday?

  2. How many more pens were sold on Saturday than on Wednesday?

Question 4

A survey was conducted asking students what transport they used to get to school.

The pictograph shows the responses.

  1. What form of transport is used by exactly $18$18 people?

    Train

    A

    Bus

    B

    Car

    C

    Walk

    D

    Bike

    E
  2. What is the difference between the amount of students who use the most common form of transport and the amount of students who use the least common form of transport?

  3. How many people participated in the survey who don't catch the train to school?

Question 5

A poll was taken to find people's favourite cupcake flavours. The votes are shown in the table.

Cupcake Flavours Number of People
Strawberry
Chocolate
Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Banana

Where represents $3$3 votes.

  1. How many people voted for Chocolate?

  2. Complete the column graph below so it shows the same data as the table.

    FlavoursNumber of Votes51015202530StrawberryChocVanillaChoc ChipBanana

Outcomes

ACMEM037

interpret information presented in graphs, such as conversion graphs, line graphs, step graphs, column graphs and picture graphs

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