5/5/2019 Scatter plot - Wikipedia
Scatter plot
A scatter plot (also called a scatterplot, scatter graph, scatter chart,
Scatter plot
scattergram, or scatter diagram)[3] is a type of plot or mathematical
diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values for typically two
variables for a set of data. If the points are color-coded, one additional variable
can be displayed. The data are displayed as a collection of points, each having
the value of one variable determining the position on the horizontal axis and
the value of the other variable determining the position on the vertical axis.[4]
Contents
Overview
Example
First John Herschel[1]
Scatterplot matrices
described
See also by
References
Purpose To identify the type of
External links relationship (if any)
between two
quantitative variables
Overview
A scatter plot can be used either when one continuous variable that is under
the control of the experimenter and the other depends on it or when both
continuous variables are independent. If a parameter exists that is
systematically incremented and/or decremented by the other, it is called
the control parameter or independent variable and is customarily plotted
along the horizontal axis. The measured or dependent variable is
customarily plotted along the vertical axis. If no dependent variable exists,
either type of variable can be plotted on either axis and a scatter plot will
illustrate only the degree of correlation (not causation) between two
variables.
A scatter plot can suggest various kinds of correlations between variables
Waiting time between eruptions and the
with a certain confidence interval. For example, weight and height, weight
duration of the eruption for the Old
would be on y axis and height would be on the x axis. Correlations may be
Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National
positive (rising), negative (falling), or null (uncorrelated). If the pattern of Park, Wyoming, USA. This chart
dots slopes from lower left to upper right, it indicates a positive correlation suggests there are generally two types
between the variables being studied. If the pattern of dots slopes from of eruptions: short-wait-short-duration,
upper left to lower right, it indicates a negative correlation. A line of best fit and long-wait-long-duration.
(alternatively called 'trendline') can be drawn in order to study the
relationship between the variables. An equation for the correlation between
the variables can be determined by established best-fit procedures. For a linear correlation, the best-fit procedure is
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known as linear regression and is guaranteed to generate a correct solution
in a finite time. No universal best-fit procedure is guaranteed to generate a
correct solution for arbitrary relationships. A scatter plot is also very useful
when we wish to see how two comparable data sets agree to show nonlinear
relationships between variables. The ability to do this can be enhanced by
adding a smooth line such as LOESS.[5] Furthermore, if the data are
represented by a mixture model of simple relationships, these relationships
will be visually evident as superimposed patterns.
The scatter diagram is one of the seven basic tools of quality control.[6]
Scatter charts can be built in the form of bubble, marker, or/and line
charts.[7]
A 3D scatter plot allows the
visualization of multivariate data. This
Example scatter plot takes multiple scalar
variables and uses them for different
For example, to display a link between a person's lung capacity, and how
axes in phase space. The different
long that person could hold his/her breath, a researcher would choose a variables are combined to form
group of people to study, then measure each one's lung capacity (first coordinates in the phase space and
variable) and how long that person could hold his/her breath (second they are displayed using glyphs and
variable). The researcher would then plot the data in a scatter plot, colored using another scalar variable.[2]
assigning "lung capacity" to the horizontal axis, and "time holding breath"
to the vertical axis.
A person with a lung capacity of 400 cl who held his/her breath for 21.7 seconds would be represented by a single dot on
the scatter plot at the point (400, 21.7) in the Cartesian coordinates. The scatter plot of all the people in the study would
enable the researcher to obtain a visual comparison of the two variables in the data set, and will help to determine what
kind of relationship there might be between the two variables.
Scatterplot matrices
For a set of data variables (dimensions) X1, X2, ... , Xk, the scatter plot matrix shows all the pairwise scatter plots of the
variables on a single view with multiple scatterplots in a matrix format. For k variables, the scatterplot matrix will contain
k rows and k columns. A plot located on the intersection of i-th row and j-th column is a plot of variables Xi versus Xj.[8]
This means that each row and column is one dimension, and each cell plots a scatterplot of two dimensions.
A generalized scatterplot matrix[9] offers a range of displays of paired combinations of categorical and quantitative
variables. A mosaic plot, fluctuation diagram, or faceted bar chart may be used to display two categorical variables. Other
plots are used for one categorical and one quantitative variables.
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Vizualization of 3D data along with the correspondent scatterplot matrix
See also
Rug plot
References
1. Friendly, Michael; Denis, Dan (2005). "The early origins and development of the scatterplot". Journal of the History of
the Behavioral Sciences. 41 (2): 103–130. doi:10.1002/jhbs.20078 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fjhbs.20078).
PMID 15812820 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15812820).
2. Visualizations that have been created with VisIt (https://wci.llnl.gov/codes/visit/gallery.html) at wci.llnl.gov. Last
updated: November 8, 2007.
3. Jarrell, Stephen B. (1994). Basic Statistics (Special pre-publication ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Pub. p. 492.
ISBN 978-0-697-21595-6. "When we search for a relationship between two quantitative variables, a standard graph of
the available data pairs (X,Y), called a scatter diagram, frequently helps..."
4. Utts, Jessica M. Seeing Through Statistics 3rd Edition, Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2005, pp 166-167. ISBN 0-534-39402-
7
5. Cleveland, William (1993). Visualizing data. Murray Hill, N.J. Summit, N.J: At & T Bell Laboratories Published by
Hobart Press. ISBN 978-0963488404.
6. Nancy R. Tague (2004). "Seven Basic Quality Tools" (http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/seven-basic-quality-tools/
overview/overview.html). The Quality Toolbox. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: American Society for Quality. p. 15. Retrieved
2010-02-05.
7. "Scatter Chart - AnyChart JavaScript Chart Documentation" (http://docs.anychart.com/7.9.0/Basic_Charts_Types/Scat
ter_Chart). AnyChart. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
8. Scatter Plot Matrix (http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/scatplma.htm) at itl.nist.gov.
9. Emerson, John W.; Green, Walton A.; Schoerke, Barret; Crowley, Jason (2013). "The Generalized Pairs Plot". Journal
of Computational and Graphical Statistics. 22 (1): 79–91. doi:10.1080/10618600.2012.694762 (https://doi.org/10.108
0%2F10618600.2012.694762).
External links
What is a scatterplot? (http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/What_is_a_scatterplot%3F)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scatter_plot 3/4
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Correlation scatter-plot matrix for ordered-categorical data (http://www.r-statistics.com/2010/04/correlation-scatter-plot
-matrix-for-ordered-categorical-data/) – Explanation and R code
Density scatterplot for large datasets (http://www.r-bloggers.com/ggplot2-for-big-data/) (hundreds of millions of points)
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