Data is often described by its center. The data are clustered around the center. This means that most of the values are close to the center of the distribution. Which measure of center would you use for this data?

The shape of a graph can describe the distribution. One way to talk about the shape of a graph is its symmetry. Although this graph is not perfectly symmetric, it does have some symmetry around the center. A peak in the data is where you see the most data points. You can think of this like a mountain peak. A peak doesn’t have the be the mode of a data set. In this case, there is a peak between $700 and $800.

Spread describes how far apart the data are. In this case, the prices are very spread out, from $100 to $1000.

Outliers are data points that vary from the overall pattern. The costs between $100 and $200 appear to be outliers. The blank portion of the histogram is called a gap. A gap is an area of the graph that contains no data or very few data points. None of the laptop costs are between $200 and $300.

Study the histogram. What do you notice? Discuss and record your observations. Then, click on each of the terms to investigate features of the histogram.