Topic 23: Statistics: Histograms and Stratified Sampling

The objectives of this unit are to: * draw a histogram based upon a frequency table with unequal class widths; * use a histogram to find frequencies; * solve problems involving stratified sampling.

Histograms (Grade A)
Key points A histogram is a graphical means of representing data given in a grouped frequency table. In a histogram, the area of a bar must be proportional to the frequency. In the case of a frequency table with unequal class widths, this is achieved by plotting the frequency density on the vertical axis, where frequency frequency density = . class width In this case, the area of each bar is identically equal to the frequency. Simple example: A group of students ran a race. Their times are recorded in the table:
Time (secs) 16 t < 18 18 t < 19 19 t < 20 20 t < 22 22 t < 26 Frequency 6 5 8 7 5

Draw a histogram to illustrate the data. Solution: The table has intervals with different class widths for example, the interval 16 t < 18 has class width 2 seconds (i.e. the difference between 16 and 18), whereas the interval 22 t < 26 has class width 4 seconds. To draw a histogram, we need to find the frequency density corresponding to each interval:
Time (secs) 16 t < 18 18 t < 19 19 t < 20 20 t < 22 22 t < 26
frequency density

Class width 2 1 1 2 4

Frequency 6 5 8 7 5

Frequency density 62=3 51=5 81=8 7 2 = 3.5 5 4 = 1.25

8 6 4 2 16 18 20 22 24 26

Time (secs)

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Past examination question (AQA June 2004 part question) The table shows the distribution of ages in a health club.

Age (y years) 0 < y 15 15 < y 20 20 < y 25 25 < y 40 40 < y 70

Draw a histogram to illustrate this data. Solution:
frequency density

Frequency 75 350 850 750 600

200 150 100 50

10

20

30

Age (years)

40

50

60

70

The following past examination question is typical of those set by Edexcel in recent years. Worked Examination question (Edexcel): The unfinished histogram and table gives information about the heights, in centimetres, of the Year 11 students at Mathstown High School.
frequency density

35 3 25 2 15 1 05 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210

Height (h cm)

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Height (h cm) 140 h < 150 150 h < 160 160 h < 165 165 h < 170 170 h < 180 180 h < 190 190 h < 210 a) Use the histogram to complete the table. b) Use the table to complete the histogram. Solution:

Frequency 15 20 12

The table has intervals with different class widths for example, the interval 140 h < 150 has class width 10 cm (i.e. the difference between 140 and 150), whereas the interval 160 h < 165 has class width 5 cm. We begin by adding a frequency density column to the table. We complete the frequency densities for the intervals with known frequencies:
Height (h cm) 140 h < 150 150 h < 160 160 h < 165 165 h < 170 170 h < 180 180 h < 190 190 h < 210 Frequency 15 20 Frequency density 15 10 = 1.5 20 5 = 4

12

12 10 = 1.2

As the bar for the group 140 h < 150 has been drawn on the histogram, we can deduce the scale on the frequency density axis.
frequency density

35 3 25 2 15 1 05 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210

Height (h cm)

We can now complete the table by using the fact that the area of each bar corresponds to the frequency.

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Height (h cm) 140 h < 150 150 h < 160 160 h < 165 165 h < 170 170 h < 180 180 h < 190 190 h < 210

Frequency 15 3.5 10 = 35 20 3.6 5 = 18 2.2 10 = 22 12 0.6 20 = 12

Frequency density 15 10 = 1.5 3.5 (from histogram) 20 5 = 4 3.6 (from histogram) 2.2 (from histogram) 12 10 = 1.2 0.6 (from histogram)

b) We can easily complete the histogram as we know the frequency densities for the missing bars:
frequency density

4 35 3 25 2 15 1 05 140 150 160 170

Height (h cm)

180

190

200

210

Examination question (Edexcel June 2003): The incomplete table and histogram give some information about the ages of the people who live in a village.
frequency density

10

20

30

Age (years)

40

50

60

70

(a) Use the information in the histogram to complete the frequency table below. Age (x) in years 0 < x 10 10 < x 25 25 < x 30 30 < x 40 40 < x 70 Frequency 160 100 120

b) Complete the histogram.

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Past examination question (AQA November 2006) The histogram shows the distribution of student marks for an examination.
frequency density

2 15 1 05 20 40 60 80 100

Mark

a) How many students took the examination? b) Estimate the mean mark? [Hint: produce a frequency table and use the mid-points to represent each interval]

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More complex example: worked past examination question (AQA June 2005) The histogram shows the test scores of 320 children in a school.
frequency density

6 5 4 3 2 1 60 80 100 120 140 160

Mark

a) Find the median score. b) Find the interquartile range of the scores. a) The median will be the mark which half the students scored less than and half scored more than. We first identify which interval the median scores lies in: Score 70 - 80 80 - 90 90 - 110 110 - 120 120 - 130 130 - 150 Frequency 60 40 100 40 30 50

As there are 320 students altogether, we need to identify the mark scored by the 160th student. This student lies in the interval 90 110 (and is the 60th student in this interval):
frequency density

6 5 4 3 2 1 60 80 100 120 140 160

60 40 60 40

Mark

The median divides the interval 90 110 in the ratio 60 : 40 = 3 : 2. Therefore the median is 3/5 of the way into this interval. As the class width is 20, median = 90 + 3 20 = 102. 5 www.schoolworkout.co.uk 6

b) The lower quartile is the mark scored by the 80th student. This student lies in the interval 80-90. In fact the 80th student is mid-way through this interval. So the lower quartile is 85. The upper quartile is the mark scored by the 240th student. As 240 students scored no more than a score of 120, the upper quartile is 120. Therefore, the interquartile range is 120 85 = 35.

Past examination question (AQA November 2003) Batteries are tested by putting them into toys and seeing how long they last. Here are the results of 60 tests. Time, t (minutes) 500 t < 600 600 t < 700 700 t < 750 750 t < 950 950 t < 1150 (a) Draw a histogram to show this information. Frequency 8 15 10 18 9

6 5 4 3 2 1 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200

Time, t (minutes)

(b) Use your histogram, or otherwise, to estimate the median life of a battery.

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Sampling
Recap A census arises when data is collected from every member of the population we are interested in. However carrying out a census can be expensive and time-consuming. Instead, it is often preferable to collect data from a representative sample of the population. It is important to choose the sample in an unbiased way. There are several common ways of doing this in practice. The methods that you should be familiar with for GCSE Mathematics are: 1) random sampling- each member of the population is given a number; the sample is selected by generating random numbers (from tables or from a computer/ calculator); the member of the population with the corresponding number is selected. 2) systematic sampling all the members of the population are written in a list; our sample is formed by taking every Nth member of the population (e.g. choosing every 10th person on the list). 3) stratified sampling details of this sampling method are given below.

Stratified Sampling (Grade A)

Key points When the population is composed of different groups of people (e.g. different genders, different ages, different social classes etc), we may wish to choose our sample so that it contains the same proportion of each group as the entire population. For example, if 60% of our population is female, a stratified sample would be 60% female too. It is best to illustrate the method through some examples. Simple example: The number of students in each year group at a school is shown in the table: Year group 7 8 9 10 11 TOTAL Number of students 180 200 170 190 160 900

Suppose that a stratified sample of size 90 needs to be chosen. As our sample size is 10% of the entire population of the school, we would choose 10% of each year group. Our sample would therefore be composed as follows: Year group Number of students 7 18 8 20 9 17 10 19 11 16 TOTAL 90 Note: Having decided on the number of students from each year group, the actual students would then be picked at random from those in the year group (e.g. using a random number generator). www.schoolworkout.co.uk 8

Alternative method: In more complex examples, the following method can be used in order to work out how many should be sampled for each group. Year 7: The fraction of the school which is in Year 7 is We therefore must ensure that 180 . 900

180 of the sample is from year 7. 900 180 Therefore number of year 7 students to be sampled is 90 = 18. 900 Year 8: The number of year 8 students to be sampled is Likewise for the other year groups. Worked examination question (Edexcel June 2004) The table shows the number of people in each age group who watched the school sports. Age group 0 - 16 17 - 29 30 - 44 45 - 59 60 + Number of people 177 111 86 82 21 Martin did a survey of these people. He used a stratified sample of exactly 50 people according to age group. Work out the number of people from each age group that should have been in his sample of 50. Complete the table. Age group 0 - 16 17 - 29 30 - 44 45 - 59 60 + Total Number of people in sample Solution: We first find the total number of students who watched the school sports: 177 + 111 + 86 + 82 + 21 = 477 177 50 The number of people aged 0 16 in the sample must be 477 {
sample size

fraction of school in Year 8

200 900 {

{ 90
sample size

= 20

= 18.55...

As the number of people chosen for the sample must be a whole number, we would round this to 19. We can repeat this approach for all other age groups: Age group 0 - 16 17 - 29 30 - 44 Number of people in 19 86 111 50 50 sample 477 477 =9 = 12 45 - 59 82 50 477 =9 60 + 21 50 477 =2 Total 51

Notice that our total is incorrect. This is due to rounding. To correct this we must reduce the number of students from one of the age groups by 1. The calculation for the number of students in the 0 16 age group resulted in the answer 18.55 (only just big enough to round up). We could reduce the number of students in this age group to 18.

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Examination question: AQA June 2004 A small village has a population of 400. The population is classified by age as shown in the table below. Age (years) Number of people 0 - 12 35 13 - 24 58 25 - 40 125 41 - 60 103 61 + 79

A stratified sample of 50 is planned. Calculate the number of people that should be sampled from each age group.

Examination question (AQA November 2005) There are 250 workers in a factory. The table shows the number of each type of worker in the factory. Managers 25 Craftsmen 130 Labourers 54 Administrators 41

(a) A stratified sample of size 40 is required. Calculate the number of each type of worker that should be chosen.

(b) Describe a method to obtain a stratified sample of size 40 from the workers in the factory.

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Examination question (Edexcel November 2006) The table shows the number of boys and the number of girls in each year group at Springfield Secondary School. There are 500 boys and 500 girls in the school. Year group 7 8 9 10 11 Total Number of boys 100 150 100 50 100 500 Number of girls 100 50 100 150 100 500

Azez took a stratified sample of 50 girls, by year group. Work out the number of Year 8 girls in his sample.

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