The pattern of variation of a variable is called its distribution. The distribution of a quantitative variable records its numerical values and how often each value occurs. The shape and spread of a distribution can be displayed graphically (e.g., Histogram, Stemplot) or summarized by descriptive numerical values (e.g., mean, standard deviation, quartiles).
This applet is organized as five "tabbed" display screens. Select a data file from the Data Set tab. When the Data tab is selected variables may be entered/edited. Enter one value per cell. Click the trash to clear all current values. The Statistics tab provides a numerical summary of the data.
Histogram graphically displays the data. Click and hold on a class (brown bar) to display information about this class. Clicking on the histogram and dragging the mouse left will reduce the number of classes. Dragging right will increase the number of classes. The Stemplot tab will display the data as a stemplot. Click the checkbox to Split stems.
Note: Some calculated values are reported using scientific notation. In such cases "e" stands for
a power-of-ten exponent. For example, 1.0e3 = 1.0 x 103, 1e-3 = 1.0 x 10-3.