SCATTERGRAMS

Scientists or statisticians sometimes draw SCATTERGRAMS (often called scatter plots or scatter
graphs) to see if they can visualise a relationship (correlation) between two sets of data, or to see if the
data produces a trend.

Let’s look at and plot and interpret the following two sets of data:

1. TEST RESULTS AND HOURS OF STUDY

8 students completed a test in Science. Before the test, their teacher asked them to (honestly!) say for how
many hours they had prepared for the test. These are the results of the test and the hours each student had
studied beforehand:

Test result
Student Hours of study
(/10)
Fred 1 4
George 4 8
Lizzy 5 9
Mary 2 5.5
Darwin 6 10
Annabelle 6 8.5
Cecilia 1 5
Peter 4 9

We would expect that the more hours of study, the better the test results. Let’s plot the data and see!

NOTES ABOUT PLOTTING A

SCATTERGRAM

1. Just like for a line or bar graph, the

‘y’ axis should contain the data that is
possibly dependent upon the data in the ‘x’
axis.
2. There is no need to write the origins
of the data – in this case, the names of the 8
students. You may do that if you wish and
if it is useful.
3. A title and the labels of each axis
are added, just like any graph.

There does seem to be a relationship between the hours of preparatory study and the results in the test.
The graph suggests that the more hours of study completed by each student was rewarded with better
results. This is called a POSITIVE CORRLEATION.
We can use the graph to predict results. Imagine a 9th student, Gilbert, did 3 hours of study. What result
might he obtain? We can find out by drawing a TREND LINE, often called a LINE OF BEST FIT.
(There is a formula which can be used to draw the exact trend line, but here we will do it simply by
visualising the trend line.)

If we use the trend line which has been drawn onto the graph, we can predict that Gilbert might get a
score of 6.75 for his three hours of work. (He didn’t pass! 30 minutes more study and he might have
passed!)

2. TEST RESULTS AND SIZE OF SHOES

Let’s look at another set of data from the same 8 students, doing the same test in Science and ask the
question whether there is a correlation between their shoe size and their results in the test. This time we
would expect the answer to be “No!”

Table 2 Shoe Size and Science Test Results

Test result
Student Shoe size
(/10)
Fred 36 4
George 38 8
Lizzy 33 9
Mary 31 5.5
Darwin 33 10
Annabelle 32 8.5
Cecilia 31 5
Peter 33 9

Grab a page of graph paper and draw a scattergram for the data in Table 2.

Study your graph. Do you think that there is a correlation between shoe size and test results?