Tables, bars and line graphs

Choose a display for the question

Time is ordered, so a line graph helps show the changes between these readings. Plot time at equally spaced positions on the horizontal axis, temperature on the vertical axis, then join consecutive points. Label both axes and the temperature unit.

The greatest recorded temperature is 28°C at noon. The temperature falls 2°C between 10:00 and 11:00 even though the line then rises again. A joined line suggests an intermediate pattern; the table does not prove the exact temperature at 10:30 or after noon.

Bars compare categories

For favourite fruit—6 apples, 10 bananas and 4 oranges—draw separated bars of equal width from a common zero baseline. Label the categories. If each interval represents 2 pupils, the bars reach 3, 5 and 2 intervals. A taller interval count is not itself the pupil count.

The categories are not successive times, so joining their tops would suggest a sequence that is not in the data. A table preserves the exact counts in either case.

Check your understanding 1 Construct rather than copy

Draw a bar graph for 12 walkers, 8 bus passengers and 6 cyclists using 2 pupils per interval. Give the total and the difference between walkers and cyclists.

Your answer or drawing on paper

Show answer

The bars reach 6, 4 and 3 intervals and should be labelled in pupils: 12, 8 and 6. Total 26; difference 12-6 = 6 pupils. Label both axes and start each bar from zero.

Check what is not known

Does the temperature line prove that tomorrow at noon will be 28°C?