What is the difference between a line graph and a bar graph

Area graphs are very similar to line graphs. They can be used to track changes over time for one or more groups. Area graphs are good to use when you are tracking the changes in two or more related groups that make up one whole category for example public and private groups. X-Y plots are used to determine relationships between the two different things. The x-axis is used to measure one event or variable and the y-axis is used to measure the other.

If both variables increase at the same time, they have a positive relationship. For example, imagine you are looking at people arriving at school in cars, and in particular, how many people travel in each car.

You could create a bar graph with the possible numbers of people e. This leads to a distribution of results, with the highest bar corresponding to the most common outcome for example, three people in the car and the other, less common results shown as smaller bars around it. This gives a very simple visual interpretation of your data. Another example would be if you were plotting profits and losses from different departments in a store.

You could have a bar for each department, and the profits or losses shown as a bar either extending into the positive vertical axis for profits or down into the negative for losses. You could show a trend over time with bars representing each quarter for the whole store overall. Bar graphs can show trends over time for every department individually too, but this gets difficult to interpret, particularly if any changes are small. They are less versatile than bar graphs, but better for many purposes.

For example, if you wanted to show profit trends for individual departments over time, you could have one line for each department, and the progression from left to right would show how the profit changed in successive quarters. If the tests measure similar skills, you would hope to see an improvement with successive tests. This could be shown with the scores on the vertical axis and each test numbered along the horizontal axis. Lee Johnson is a freelance writer and science enthusiast, with a passion for distilling complex concepts into simple, digestible language.

He's written about science for several websites including eHow UK and WiseGeek, mainly covering physics and astronomy. He was also a science blogger for Elements Behavioral Health's blog network for five years.

He studied physics at the Open University and graduated in Circle graphs are used to compare the parts of a whole. However, they are best used when there are no more than five or six sectors and when the values of each section are different. The circle graph above has several sectors with similar sizes. It also has seven sectors. This makes it a bit difficult to compare the parts and to read the graph. However, the world has seven continents, so it does make sense to use a circle graph to compare the parts continents with the whole world.

The bar graph shows the surface area in millions of square kilometers. This was necessary in order to create a bar graph that is not confusing because of too many gridlines. The bar graph shows a surface area of The bar graph stresses the individual items listed in the table as compared to the others. The bar graph does not show the total of all items in the table. The bar graph above allows us to compare the surface area of each continent. However, it does not allow us to compare the parts to the whole.

So we cannot see the relationship between the surface area of each continent and the surface area of all seven continents. Solution: It is difficult to determine which type of graph is appropriate for the given data in this problem. Each graph above has its own strengths and limitations. You must choose one of these solutions based on your own judgment. Summary: Graphs help us examine trends and make comparisons by visually displaying data.

Before we can graph a given set of data from a table, we must first determine which type of graph is appropriate for summarizing that data. There are several types of graphs, each with its own purpose, and its own strengths and limitations. Which one we choose depends on the type of data given, and what we are asked to convey to the reader. Directions: Enter one of the following answers for each exercise below: line, bar or circle. Your answer should be given as a word or as a whole number.

By signing up, you agree to receive useful information and to our privacy policy. Shop Math Games. Skip to main content. Search form Search. The circle graph uses the total of all items in the table. The bar graph stresses the individual sales of each brand as compared to the others. The bar graph does not use the total of all items in the table.

The bar graph simply gives a visual listing of the information in the table. We were asked to construct a graph which best demonstrates the sales of each brand. Solution: Problem 3: The table below shows the composition of Earth's atmosphere.

Solution: Problem 4: The table below shows the surface area of each continent in square kilometers. Exercises Directions: Enter one of the following answers for each exercise below: line, bar or circle. The ages of 7 trumpet players in a band are 13, 12, 11, 12, 11, 10 and What type of graph would be appropriate for comparing the ages of these trumpet players?

The federal hourly minimum wage was recorded each year from to