Bar Graphs and Pie Charts

Suppose your class-teacher wants to show the class the comparison of the marks of students
in all subjects. Is it possible for her to remember the marks of each and every student in all
subjects? No! Also, she doesn’t have the time to compare the marks of every student.
Moreover, how can she make the comparison interesting? She can graphically show the
comparison. How? She can use Bar graphs, histograms, pie graphs, line graph etc. to do the
comparison. Let’s evaluate each of these in detail:

Bar Graphs
It is the simplest one among the graphs. A bar graph is a graphical representation of the data
in the form of rectangular bars or columns of equal width. It is the simplest representation
of data.

Properties of Bar Graphs

● Each bar or column in a bar graph is of equal width.
● All bars have a common base.
● The height of the bar corresponds to the value of the data.
● The distance between each bar is the same.

Construction of a Bar Graph

i. Draw two perpendicular lines intersecting each other at a point O. The vertical line is
the y-axis and the horizontal is the x-axis.
ii. Choose a suitable scale to determine the height of each bar.
iii. On the horizontal line, draw the bars at equal distance with corresponding heights.
iv. The space between the bars should be equal.

Types of Bar Graphs

A bar graph can be either vertical or horizontal depending upon the choice of the axis as the
base. Let us take an example of a bar graph showing the comparison of marks of a student in
all subjects out of 100 marks.

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With the bar graph, we can also compare the marks of students in each subject other than
the marks of one student in every subject. Also, we can draw the bar graph for every student
in all subjects.

Histogram
A histogram is similar to a bar graph except for the fact that there is no gap between the
rectangular bars. The rectangular bars show the area proportional to the frequency of a
variable and the width of the bars represents the class width or class interval.
Frequency means the number of times a variable is occurring or is present. It is an area
graph. The heights of the rectangles are proportional to the corresponding frequencies of
similar classes.

Properties of Histogram
a. Each bar or column in a bar graph is of equal width and corresponds to the equal
class interval.
b. All bars have a common base.
c. The height of the bar corresponds to the frequency of the data.

Construction of a Histogram
i. Draw two perpendicular lines intersecting each other at a point O. The vertical line is
the y-axis and the horizontal is the x-axis.
ii. Choose a suitable scale for both the axes to determine the height and width of each
bar.
iii. On the horizontal line, draw the bars with corresponding heights.

Let us take an example of a bar graph showing the comparison of marks of 20 students in
Mathematics out of 100 marks.

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Let us find out the number of students in the various ranges (categories) of the marks.

Line Graph
A line graph is a type of a chart or graph which shows information when a series of data is
joined by a line. It shows the changes in the data over a period of time.

Properties of a line graph

● It consists of Vertical and Horizontal scales. These scales may or may not be uniform.
● Data point corresponds to the change over a period of time.
● The line joining these data points shows the trend of change.
● The line graph showing the number of cars passing through a particular street over a
period of time:

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Solved Example for You
Question 1. From the given line graph answer the following questions

1. What was the speed of the car at 1:00 PM?

2. Find the difference in the speed of the car for the time 10 AM and 11 AM?
3. What is the maximum and the minimum speed of the car?

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Answer : From the line graph,
1. The speed of the car is 55 km/h.
2. The difference in speed of the car = (72 − 45) km/h = 27 km/h.
3. The maximum speed = 75 km/h and the minimum speed = 39 km/h.

Question 2: What are the bar graphs?

Answer: Bar graphs are one of the simplest ones amongst the graphs. It is a graphical
representation of the data in the shape of rectangular bars or columns of equal width.
Moreover, it also refers to being the simplest representation of data.

Question 3: List the properties of the bar graphs?

Answer: The properties of bar graphs are that firstly, each bar or column of the bar graph
has equal width. Further, all the bars have a common base. Similarly, the height of the bar is
corresponding to the value of the data. Finally, in bar graphs, the distance between each of
the bars is the same.

Question 4: What is a histogram?

Answer: A histogram refers to a bar graph with an exception that it does not consist of a gap
between the rectangular bars. Moreover, the rectangular bars denote the area proportional
to the frequency of a variable plus the width of the bars denotes the class width or class
interval.

Question 5: What is the line graph?

Answer: A line graph refers to a kind of chart or graph that shows us information when a
series of data is joined by a line. Similarly, it represents the changes in the data over a phase
of time.

Pie Charts and Linear Graphs

Have you noticed that all the slices of the pizza are equally cut? Every slice is an equal part of
the whole pizza. Cutting out a piece of cake or a pie also forms some sectors of the circle.
Similarly, you can depict some useful information in the form of a sector of a circle. This can
be done by making Pie Charts. The Pie Chart is a collection of slices showing the numerical
proportion. Let’s see how to make a chart and a linear graph in this section.

Pie Charts
A pie chart is a circular representation of data. In it, data is represented by the sector of a
circle. The sectors of the circle are like the slices of a pie or pizza. The only difference is that
in a pie chart the sectors are of different sizes. The size of each sector is related to its
frequency. Let’s see how to make a chart.

Properties of Pie Charts

● The total angle of a circle is 360°.
● Each sector of the circle shows various observations of the data.

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 ● The whole circle represents the sum of the values of the observation.
● The angle of the particular sector is calculated as ((Value of the component) / Total
value) × 360°.
● If the data is in percentage form, the angle of the sector becomes ((Percentage value
of component) / 100) × 360°. It shows the percentage distribution of the
observations.

How to Make a Chart?

i. Draw a circle of any radius.
ii. Calculate the angles of each sector by the above formula.
iii. Draw the various sectors.
iv. Color each sector of your choice.
The pie chart below shows the proportion of the number of employees on the basis of their
qualification.

Linear Graphs
Just like a line graph, a linear graph is formed when a set of coordinates are joined by a set
of a line segment. The only difference is that these line segments are so joined that they
form an unbroken line. In other words, we will have a straight line when all the sets of points
join. Let us get familiar with the term co-ordinates.

Coordinates
Suppose you are blindfolded and one of your friends is giving you directions to move. If he
says move 5 steps to the right and then 5 steps in front. What will you do? You first go right
or move front first? If you are saying right then you are a good listener. But if you are going
to move in front you are wrong.

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Maybe he asked you to move right first because maybe after some steps there is a pillar or
some obstruction. Finding the coordinates of a point is just like this. Below is the graph
showing the coordinates (3, 5).

Construction of Linear Graph

i. Draw two lines perpendicular to each other.
ii. The horizontal line forms the x-axis and the vertical is the y-axis.
iii. The coordinates are the ordered pair of the numbers. The first number represents
the x-axis and the later one is the y-coordinate.
iv. Join the various sets of points.

It is linear as we always get a straight line when we plot the points on a graph. Suppose Mr. X
is walking in a park. He starts to count his footsteps and the distance covered. As distance
increases, the number of footsteps also increases and vice-versa. Below is a graph showing
the linear relationship between the number of footsteps and the distance covered.

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Solved Examples for You
Question 1: Are the coordinates (4, 5) and (5, 4) the same? Why?
Answer: No, (4, 5) and (5, 4) are not the same. In (4, 5) the x-coordinate is 4 whereas in (5, 4)
it is 5. The same is with the y-coordinate too. As a result, they are different and they
represent the different sets of points.

Question 2: Draw the following points on the graph and answer the following questions.
(2, 210), (5, 420), (7, 560), (6, 490), (3, 280), (1, 140), (8, 630)
1. Is it a linear graph?
2. What is the value of x-coordinate if y-coordinate corresponds to 350?
3. If the graph is linear, find the value of y-coordinate for which x-coordinate is 11.

Solution: The graph for the above points.

1. The graph is a linear graph.

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 2. The coordinates of the point will be (4, 350).
3. The value will be 840. The coordinates of the point will be (11, 840).

This concludes our discussion on how to make a chart and a linear graph.

Question 3: What is the meaning of the pie chart in mathematics?

Answer: A Pie Chart, also known as a pie graph is a chart that uses the ‘pie slices’ to
represent the relative sizes of data. This chart is divided into various segments, where each
sector displays the relative size of every single value.

Question 4: Does a linear graph have to be straight?

Answer: Every linear equation forms straight lines when graphed. However, all linear
equations don’t form linear functions. For being a linear function, a graph needs to be both
linear and a function.

Question 5: Is a pie chart a graph?

Answer: Yes, a pie chart is a spherical graph that represents the relative contribution that is
contributed by various categories to an overall total. A wedge of the sphere symbolizes the
contribution of each category.

Question 6: Define a non-linear graph.

Answer: A non-linear graph is not a straight line. A non-linear graph is describable with the
help of an equation, relating the 2 variables ‘x’ and ‘y’, which cannot be reorganized to: ‘y =
mx + c’.

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