What Histogram is
A histogram is a graph that uses bars to represent the distribution of a numerical variable. It is a useful tool for visualizing the distribution of data and can easily be used to compare different datasets.
Steps for creating a histogram:
- Collect the data points for the numerical variable you wish to examine.
- Sort the data points into classes, or “bins”.
- Calculate the frequency of each class.
- Plot the frequency of each class on the graph.
- Label the x-axis with the classes and the y-axis with the frequencies.
- Draw bars for each class, with the height of each bar representing the frequency of that class.
Examples
- Histograms are often used to represent frequency distributions, which show how often different values of a variable are observed in a data set.
- Histograms can be used to display the distribution of a numerical variable, or a set of variables, over a range of values.
- Histograms are also used to compare distributions across different groups. For example, a histogram could be used to compare the distribution of heights for men and women.
- Histograms are often used to analyze the shape of a distribution, such as its skewness or kurtosis.
- Histograms can be used to detect outliers and other unusual observations in a data set.