Chapter 7

Data
7A Collecting Data (pp. 62,63)
7B Classifying Data (pg. 64)
7C Dot Plots and Stem-and-Leaf Plots (pg. 65)
7D Grouped Frequency Tables (pg. 66)
7E Cumulative Frequency (pg. 67)
7F Frequency Histogram and Polygon (pg. 68)
7G Pareto Charts (pg. 69)
7H Motor Vehicle Statistics (pg. 70)
7I Water Usage (pg. 71)

Written by
Benjamin Odgers
Maths Teacher
B Teaching / B Science

The following theory booklet lines up with the Cambridge Year 11 NSW Standard Mathematics
Textbook. This can be found using the following link:
https://www.cambridge.edu.au/education/titles/CambridgeMATHS-Stage-6-Mathematics-Standard-
Year-11-print-and-interactive-textbook-powered-by-Cambridge-HOTmaths/#.XMYVMEszY2w

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7A Collecting Data https://youtu.be/VhEOqE-GbXs
Data collection is vital in today’s society. Businesses need to collect data from consumers in order to know
what products will sell. Government institutions need to gather data in order to know the needs of its people.
There are countless things we know as a result of gathering data such as:
• 10% of the population is left handed
• 37% of the population has O+ blood
• 21.8% of the world is vegetarian

Notes:

Primary and Secondary Sources of Data https://youtu.be/sXENfm3DU9A

It is important that data is accurate and has not come from unreliable sources. Data can come from either
primary or secondary sources.
• Primary sources – first hand data collection, such as interviewing people or conducting experiments.
• Secondary sources – data that was collected by someone else, such as gathering information from the
internet, a census or newspapers.

Notes:

Census or Sample Data Collection https://youtu.be/l6s6UBYf6kE

• Census – collecting data from every person in a population. This could include surveying every
person in a country or every student in a school or year group. A census gives very accurate data but
is usually expensive and time consuming.
• Sample – collecting data from a part of the population. This could include surveying only 5% of the
people in a country or every 10th student in a school. A sample takes less time but is not as accurate
as a census.

Notes:

Example 1 https://youtu.be/D-MvXKsUzlE
Look at the two examples below and decide whether a census or a sample is the best way to collect the data.
a) A teacher wants to know the average height of students in her class.

b) A shoe manufacturer would like to know what percentage of men aged 20+ have a shoe size of 10.

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Bias Data https://youtu.be/VCBe4kn5NXE
Data that is bias can give an inaccurate view of population groups. If you wanted to know the percentage of
people that enjoy Mathematics, you could get bias data if you only interviewed the top year 9 Maths class.

Notes:

Types of Sample Groups https://youtu.be/oMxSbexcLOs

• Random samples – selecting people randomly, such as using some sort of random number generator
to select a group of 20 people from a group of 100.
• Stratified sample – sorting people into groups before selecting a sample of the population, for
example if there are 60 girls and 40 boys in a school, you might make sure that 6 girls and 4 boys
were selected for your sample group.
• Systematic sample – you might organise people in a line and pick every 10th person.
• Self-selected sample – when members from the population volunteer themselves for the collection of
data.
Notes:

Example 2 https://youtu.be/AEz6eP_Dg88
There are 1000 students in a school. 600 of these are girls and 400 are boys. State whether each scenario
below is random, stratified, systematic or self-selected.
a) 60 girls and 40 boys are selected

b) Every 8th student is selected

c) A computer randomly selects 30 students

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7B Classifying Data https://youtu.be/2pLLNXfyinE

Categorical Data Numerical Data

Nominal Data Ordinal Data Discrete Data Continuous Data

Example 1 https://youtu.be/L_f-rq1mPBk
Classify the following situations as categorical or numerical data.
a) The number of people inside a shopping centre

b) The eye colour of students in a classroom

c) The time it takes for people to run 100m

d) The size of shirts (S, M, L, XL, etc)

Example 2 https://youtu.be/ATylYM8JC3o
Classify the following situations as nominal, ordinal, discrete or continuous data.
a) The number of people inside a shopping centre

b) The eye colour of students in a classroom

c) The time it takes for people to run 100m

d) The size of shirts (S, M, L, XL, etc)

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7C Dot Plots and Stem-and-Leaf Plots

Example 1 – Dot plot https://youtu.be/jz9BKP4QXhw

20 people were asked how many pets they had at home. Construct a dot plot of the data below.

0 1 1 2 3 2 1 5 2 1
1 10 0 2 4 3 2 1 0 1

a) From this data what is the most common number of pets, people have at home?

b) What is the outlier?

Example 2 – Stem-and-leaf plot https://youtu.be/Pbsio8YKnng

Construct a stem-and-leaf-plot from the data below.

31 23 12 29 15 4
10 7 24 12 31 17

Example 3 – Back-to-back stem-and-leaf plot https://youtu.be/_7Uj4xMRfr4

The following data represents the age of boys and girls that play Netball. Represent this data as a back-to-
back stem-and-leaf-plot. What conclusions can you gather from this data?

Boys 20 16 17 20 21 24 22 18 25 29 31 20 25 20 21
Girls 12 18 13 13 17 21 14 9 18 11 23 22 10 20 13

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7D Grouped Frequency Tables

Class Intervals https://youtu.be/aKq6x4CjF_E

The following dot points will help when selecting class intervals.
• Make sure intervals do not overlap, for example don’t use 0-5 then 5-10 (the 5’s overlap).
• Make sure there are no gaps between intervals, for example don’t use 0-4 then 10-14
• Choose intervals that are easy to read such as intervals of 5 units or 10 units.
• Choose intervals that start on the exact value, for example use 0-9 instead of 1-10

Example 1 https://youtu.be/_vjB3AScPZ0
The height of 20 basketball players is recorded below. Represent this data using a grouped frequency table.

181 180 194 191 189 189 174 174 178 188
177 182 183 180 192 181 179 183 186 187

What conclusions can you draw from this data?

Class
Class Tally Frequency
Centre

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7E Cumulative Frequency
As we move down the frequency column the frequency accumulates. We use them to see how many results
lie above or below a certain point in a data set.

Example 1 https://youtu.be/1NvJOeztd4I
20 people were asked how many pets they had at home. Construct a cumulative frequency table for the data
below

0 1 1 2 3 2 1 5 2 1
1 4 0 2 4 3 2 1 0 1

a) How many people have 1 pet at home?

b) How many people have 1 or zero pets at home?

c) How many people have more than 1 pet at home?

Cumulative
Score Frequency
Frequency

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7F Frequency Histogram and Polygon https://youtu.be/JdMcOhv8s8Y
Frequency histograms and polygons are the graphs we use to represent frequency tables.

Score Frequency 7 7
Frequency Frequency
6 Histogram 6 Polygon
0 3
5 5
1 7

Frequency

Frequency
4 4
2 5
3 3
3 2
2 2
4 2
1 1
5 1 Score
Score
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5

Example 1 – Grouped Frequency Graphs https://youtu.be/-i19yzMTNtg

The height of 20 basketball players is recorded below. Represent this data using a frequency histogram and
polygon

Class
Class (cm) Frequency
Centre
170 - 174 172 2
Frequency

175 - 179 177 3

180 - 184 182 7
185 - 189 187 5
190 - 194 192 3

Example 2 – Cumulative Frequency Graphs https://youtu.be/tPBbMbw_3dY

The height of 20 basketball players is recorded below.
a) Represent this data using a cumulative frequency histogram and polygon (a cumulative frequency
polygon is also known as an ogive)
b) Calculate the median height using the graph.

Class
Class (cm) Frequency
Centre
170 - 174 172 2
Frequency

175 - 179 177 3

180 - 184 182 7
185 - 189 187 5
190 - 194 192 3

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7G Pareto Charts https://youtu.be/VKnV4HFE7C8
Pareto charts highlight the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule). The 80/20 rule can be applied to
many things, such as:
• About 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
• 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.
• 80% of the work is completed by 20% of the workers.
• 80% of viewers watch 20% of the shows on TV.

Example 1 https://youtu.be/pIkp0iWloWk
A strawberry farmer would like to know which of his workers are the most efficient. He sent his workers out
for an hour to see how many punnets of strawberries they could pick. The results are shown in the
cumulative frequency table below.

Cumulative Cumulative
Worker Frequency
Frequency Percentage
Bill 30
Fran 28
Anne 9
Erin 5
Chen 2
Dave 1

a) Fill in the blanks on the above table

b) Construct a Pareto chart
c) Decide who are the most efficient employees by using the Pareto principle

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7H Motor Vehicle Statistics

3 Types of percentages questions https://youtu.be/te35RM-NoXw

• Calculating the percentage of an amount

Percentage ÷ 100 × amount

• Calculating an amount as a percentage of the total

amount
× 100
total

• Calculating the original amount after a percentage discount or increase - this is a challenging process
and is explained in Example 1 part c.

Example 1 https://youtu.be/CqamnqNgla0 and https://youtu.be/KjwXfk2jQEY

The table below shows the number of speeding tickets issued in 2018 in Murwillumbah, NSW (this data was
made up)

Road Number of Fines

Tweed Valley Way 527
Kyogle Rd 413
Riverview St. 129

a) 20% of fines were issued to truck drivers. How many fines were issued to truck drivers?

b) What percentage of fines were handed out on Riverview St?

c) 2018 had 5% more fines than the previous year. How many fines were issued in 2017?

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7I Water Usage

3 Types of percentages questions

• Calculating the percentage of an amount

Percentage ÷ 100 × amount

• Calculating an amount as a percentage of the total

amount
× 100
total

• Calculating the original amount after a percentage discount or increase - this is a challenging process
and is explained in Example 1 part c.

Example 1 https://youtu.be/SDOLOBtha3A and https://youtu.be/DbLfMljZTJ8

The table below shows the rainfall (in millimetres) for Murwillumbah in 2018 (this data was made up)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
192 231 321 293 212 157 186 89 76 126 197 154

a) What percentage of the rain fell in Autumn (March to May)?

b) Murwillumbah had 23% more rain in 2017. How much rain fell in 2017?

c) March 2018 had 25% less rain than in March 2017. How much rain fell in March 2017?

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