AGSC 320 Statistical Methods

Organizing & Graphing Data

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DATA
Numerical representation of reality Qualitative or quantitative Depending of the measurement type different mathematical operations can be done Ex.

Data representation
Graphical presentation of data Most common graph describing data histogram Histogram relates values taken by a variable with the frequency of occurrence of respective values Frequency: # times a value is recorded / observed

Frequency distribution: organization of raw data using categories/classes and frequencies

Frequency distribution
Class: a category grouping similar values
e.g. 1.2, 1.3, 1.7 and 2.2, 2.5, 2.9 e.g. deer & bear and turkey & dove and bass & salmon

Properties of a frequency distribution:

There should be at least 5 classes but less than 20 Classes are mutually exclusive Classes are continuous
There is no gap between two adjacent classes

Classes are exhaustive

any value should be found in one class

Classes have same width

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Frequency distribution
Creating a frequency distribution: 1. find the highest and lowest value 2. find the range 3. select the number of classes
rule of thumb: between 5 and 20 classes Sturges Rule: c = 3.3 x log2 n +1

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

determine the class width select a starting point and lower class limits find upper limits for each class find class boundaries and class midpoints tally raw data find frequencies, plot the data Graph
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Organizing Data
Example Create a frequency distribution using the following data knowing that the table shows the heights of 20 trees from a stand 50, 45, 32, 48, 56, 38, 42, 48, 55, 36, 41, 51, 30, 59, 53, 47, 57, 51, 46, 44

Organizing Data
Step 1: extreme values Step 2: compute range Step 3: determine the # classes Step 4: class width Step 5: select staring point:
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Organizing Data
Step 6: determine the upper class limit Step 7: find class boundaries and midpoints Step 8: tally raw data
Class limits Class boundaries Midpoints Tally

Organizing Data
Histogram: graph displaying data using continuous bars having the height the frequencies of the classes

Frequency polygon
Freq. polygon: line connecting the points representing
the class midpoint and class frequency

Cumulative frequency: total # values bellow the

upper-bound of each class

Ogive: curve representing the cumulative frequencies for

the classes
Class Frequency Ogive
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 5 7 10 9 4 1 2 7 14 24 33 37 38
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 class 1 class 2 class 3 class 4 class 5 class 6 class 7
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Relative frequency
Represents the frequency distribution in respect with the total number of values
Ratio between class frequency and total # of values
Relative frequency of a class = class frequency # values in class = total # values total # values
15 10 5 0 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 2 4 6 8
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0 2 4 6 8

Class Frequency Relative frequency

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total 2 5 7 10 9 4 1 38 0.05 0.13

Shape of histograms
Frequency polygon empirical representation of the distribution describing the investigated process Shape of histogram important in determining the appropriate statistical methods used to analyze data
Bell shaped Unimodal Uniform distribution Reverse-J distribution (Liocourt) Symmetric Bimodal Left skewed Right - skewed

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