AP Statistics - Lesson 1.2

dotplot

individual values shown as a dot above its location on a number line
- shows distribution of a quantitative variable

overall pattern

shape, center, spread

outlier

individual value that falls outside the overall pattern

describing a distribution of quantitative data

S- shape
O- outliers
C- center
S- spread

shape

skewed/symmetrical and mode

mode; modes

most frequent; major peaks

center

median or mean

mean

average

median

the middle value of a data set when numbers are arranged from least to greatest

spread

how much variability in the data, range

range

highest value minus smallest value

skewed right

right side of the graph with larger values is longer than the left

skewed left

left side of the graph is much longer than the right side

symmetric

the right and left sides of the graph are almost mirror images

unimodal

single peak

bimodal

two clear peaks

multimodal

multiple peaks

stemplot

separate each observation into a stem and a one-digit leaf; show distribution of a quantitative variable

split stems

stem repeated twice: first line leaf values of 0-4, second line leaf values of 5-9; ex:
0 | 0 1 2 3 4
0 | 5 6 7 8 9

back-to-back stemplot

compare two variables, share same stem, work out from center on both sides

histogram

plot the counts (frequencies) or percents (relative frequencies) of values in equal-width classes; shows distribution of a quantitative variable