Ogive and Box-and-Whisker Plot

Ogive
An ogive (oh-jive), sometimes called a cumulative frequency polygon, is a type of frequency polygon that
shows cumulative frequencies. In other words, the cumulative percents are added on the graph from left to right.
o An ogive graph plots cumulative frequency on the y-axis and class boundaries along the x-axis.
o It’s very similar to a histogram, only instead of rectangles, an ogive has a single point marking where the
top right of the rectangle would be.
o They serve the same purpose as histograms, but are especially helpful for comparing sets of data.
Frequency polygons are also a good choice for displaying cumulative frequency distributions.
o Since the cumulative frequencies can either be ‘less than’ or ‘more than’ type, there are two type of ogives
called ‘less than’ type and ‘more than’ type ogive.
o The value of median and other partition values can be located from the ogives.
o The technique of drawing frequency curves and cumulative frequency curves is more or less the same.
The only difference is that in case of simple frequency curves the frequency is plotted against the mid
point of a class interval whereas in case of a cumulative frequency curve it is plotted at the upper or limit
of a class interval depending upon the manner in which the series has been cumulated.
o Frequency polygons are a graphical device for understanding the shapes of distributions. They serve the
same purpose as histograms, but are especially helpful for comparing sets of data. Frequency polygons
are also a good choice for displaying cumulative frequency distributions.

How to Draw an Ogive Graph?

Step 1:
Make a relative frequency table from the data. The first column has the class limits, the second column
has the frequency (the count) and the third column has the relative frequency (class frequency / total number of
items)
Step 2:
Add a fourth column and cumulate (add up) the frequencies in column 2, going down from top to bottom.
Step 3:
Add a fifth column and cumulate the relative frequencies from column 3. If you do this step correctly, your
values should add up to 100% (or 1 as a decimal)
Step 4:
Draw an x-y graph with percent cumulative relative frequency on the y-axis (from 0 to 100%, or as a
decimal, 0 to 1). Mark the x-axis with the class boundaries.
Step 5:
Plot your points. Note: Each point should be plotted on the upper limit of the class boundary. For example,
if your first class boundary is 0 to 10, the point should be plotted at 10.
Step 6:
Connect the dots with straight lines. the ogive is one continuous line, made up of several smaller lines
that connect pairs of dots, moving from left to right.

Box-and-Whisker Plot
A box and whisker plot (sometimes called a boxplot) is a graph that presents information from a five-
number summary. This summary includes the following statistics: the minimum value, the 25th percentile (known
as Q1), the median, the 75th percentile (Q3), and the maximum value. It does not show a distribution in as much
detail as a stem and leaf plot or histogram does, but is especially useful for indicating whether a distribution is
skewed and whether there are potential unusual observations (outliers) in the data set. Box and whisker plots
are also very useful when large numbers of observations are involved and when two or more data sets are being
compared.
A box and whisker plot is a way of summarizing a set of data measured on an interval scale. It is often used in
explanatory data analysis. This type of graph is used to show the shape of the distribution, its central value, and
its variability.

In a box and whisker plot:

o the ends of the box are the upper and lower quartiles, so the box spans the interquartile range.
Interquartile range = Q3–Q1
o the median is marked by a vertical line inside the box.
the whiskers are the two lines outside the box that extend to the highest and lowest observations.

How to Draw a Box-and-Whisker Plot?

Step 1:
Put your numbers in ascending order (from smallest to largest).
Step 2:
Find the minimum and maximum for your data set. Now that your numbers are in order, this should be
easy to spot.
Step 3:
Find the median. The median is the middle number.
Step 4:
Find Q1 and Q3. Q1 can be thought of as a median in the lower half of the data, and Q3 can be thought
of as a median for the upper half of data.
Step 5:
Write down your summary found in the above steps and mark off the minimum and maximum values,
and Q1, Q2, and Q3.
Step 6:
The "box" part of the plot goes from Q1 to Q3, with a line drawn inside the box to indicate the location of
the median, Q2, and then the "whiskers" are drawn to the endpoints.

Examples:
1. Draw the box-and-whisker plot for the following data:
A. 98, 77, 85, 88, 82, 83, 87
B. 4.3, 5.1, 3.9, 4.5, 4.4, 4.9, 5.0, 4.7, 4.1, 4.6, 4.4, 4.3, 4.8, 4.4, 4.2, 4.5, 4.4
2. A year ago, Angela began working at a computer store. Her supervisor asked her to keep a record of
the number of sales she made each month. The following data set is a list of her sales for the last 12
months:
34, 47, 1, 15, 57, 24, 20, 11, 19, 50, 28, 37.
Like Angela, Carl works at a computer store. He also recorded the number of sales he made each
month. In the past 12 months, he sold the following numbers of computers:
51, 17, 25, 39, 7, 49, 62, 41, 20, 6, 43, 13.
A. Give a five-number summary of Carl's and Angela's sales.
B. Make two box and whisker plots, one for Angela's sales and one for Carl's.
C. Briefly describe the comparisons between their sales.

3. Draw an Ogive graph for the following set of data:

2, 7, 16, 21, 31, 3, 8, 17, 21, 55, 3, 13, 18, 22, 55, 4, 14, 19, 25, 57, 6, 15, 20, 29, 58
4. Marks obtained by the students of a class in statistics test are:

Marks 0–9 10 – 19 20 – 30 29 – 40 39 – 50
Number of students 4 8 18 15 5
Draw less than cumulative frequency and more than cumulative frequency polygon.