6 STATISTICS

Class Intervals
Class Interval
1. Data that consist of the measurement of a quantity can be grouped into
few classes and the range of each class in known as the class interval.

Class Limits and Boundaries

Lower Limit and Upper Limit
2. For class interval, for example 30 39, the smaller value (30) is known as
the lower limit while the larger value (39) is known as theupper limit.
Lower Boundary and Upper Boundary
3. The lower boundary of a class interval is the middle value between
the lower limit of the class interval and the upper limit of the class before it.
4. The upper boundary of a class interval is the middle value between
the upper limit of the class interval and the lower limit of the class after it.
Example:
20 29

30 39

40 49

Class size
5. The class size is the difference between the upper boundary and lower
boundary of the class.

Example:
Size of class interval 30 39
= Upper boundary Lower boundary
= 39.5 29.5
= 10

Mode and Mean of Grouped Data

Mode and Mean of Grouped Data
(A) Modal Class
The modal class of grouped data is the class interval in the frequency table with
the highest frequency.

(B) Class Midpoint

The class midpoint is the value of data that lies at the centre of a class.

Class midpoint=Lower limit + Upper limit2

(C) Calculating the Mean of Grouped Data

The steps to calculate the mean of grouped data are as follows.
Step 1: Calculate the midpoint value of each class.
Step 2: Calculate the value of (frequency midpoint value) of each class.
Step 3: Calculate the sum of the values of (frequency midpoint value)
of all the classes.
Step 4: Calculate the sum of all the frequencies of all the classes.
Step 5: Calculate the value of the mean using the formula below.

Example:
The following frequency table shows the number of magazines sold at a
bookshop for 30 days in April 2013.
Number of magazines

Frequency

220 229

230 239

240 249

11

250 259

260 269

Based on the data given,

(a) calculate the size of class,
(b) state the modal class,
(c) calculate the mean number of magazine sold per day.
Solution:
(a) Size of the class
= upper boundary lower boundary
= 229.5 219.5
= 10

(b) Modal class = 240 249 (Highest frequency)

(c)
Number of magazines

Frequency (f)

Class midpoint (x)

220 229

224.5

230 239

234.5

240 249

11

244.5

250 259

254.5

260 269

264.5

Histograms with Class Interval of the Same Size

Histograms
Draw a histogram based on the frequency table of a grouped data
1. A histogram is a graphical representation of a frequency distribution.
2. A histogram consists of vertical rectangular bars without any spacing
between them.
3. Steps for drawing a histogram
(a) Determine the lower boundaries and upper boundaries for each class
interval.
(b) Choose suitable scales for the horizontal axis (x-axis) to represent
class interval and the vertical axis (y-axis) to represent frequency.

Example:
The following frequency table shows the radii, in cm, of different types of trees
in a garden.
Radii (cm)
2.0 2.4
2.5 2.9
3.0 3.4
3.5 3.9
4.0 4.4
4.5 4.9

Frequency
7
5
10
2
6
4

Draw a histogram to represent the above information.

Solution:
Radii (cm)
2.0 2.4
2.5 2.9
3.0 3.4
3.5 3.9
4.0 4.4
4.5 4.9

Frequency
7
5
10
2
6
4

Lower boundary
1.95
2.45
2.95
3.45
3.95
4.45

Upper boundary
2.45
2.95
3.45
3.95
4.45
4.95

Frequency Polygons
Frequency Polygons
1. A frequency polygon is a line graph that connects the midpoints of
each class interval at the top end of each rectangle in a histogram.
2. A frequency polygon can be drawn from a
(a) Histogram,
(b) Frequency table

3. Steps for drawing a frequency polygon:

Step 1: Add a class with 0 frequency before the first class and add also a
class with 0 frequency after the last class.
Step 2: Calculate the midpoints or mark the midpoints of the top sides of
the rectangular bars including the midpoints of the two
additional classes.
Step 3: Joint all the midpoints with straight lines.
Example:
The following frequency table shows the distance travelled by 38 teenagers by
motorcycles in one afternoon.
Journey travelled (km)

Frequency

55 59

60 64

65 69

70 74

75 79

80 84

Draw a frequency polygon based on the frequency table.

Solution:
Journey travelled (km)

Frequency

Midpoint

50 54

52

55 59

57

60 64

62

65 69

67

70 74

72

75 79

77

80 84

82

85 89

87

Cumulative Frequency
A) Cumulative Frequency
Cumulative Frequency of a data or a class interval in a frequency table is
obtained by determining the sum of its frequency with the total frequencies of
all its previous data or class interval.
(B) Ogive
Ogive is a cumulative frequency graph which is obtained by plotting the
cumulative frequency against the upper boundaries of each class.
Example:
The data below shows the number of books read by a group of 60 students in a
year.

Books
6-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40

Frequency
3
7
11
16
11
8
4

(a) Construct a cumulative frequency table for the given data.

(b) By using the scales of 2cm to 5 books on the horizontal axis and 2cm
to 10 students on the vertical axis, draw an ogive for the data.
Solution:
(a)

Add a class with frequency 0 before the first class.

Find the upper boundary of each class interval.

(b)

Books

Frequency

1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40

0
3
7
11
16
11
8
4

Cumulative
Frequency
0
0+3=3
3 + 7 = 10
10 + 11 = 21
21 + 16 = 37
37 + 11 = 48
48 + 8 = 56
56 + 4 = 60

Upper
Boundary
5.5
10.5
15.5
20.5
25.5
30.5
35.5
40.5