Project 1a: Charts and Graphs

 

·          Write a report that demonstrates your ability to produce and interpret each type of chart discussed in class (These include a frequency table/histogram, bar chart, pie chart, line chart, and scatter plot). You can use exercises from Chapter 2, or use data from any interest area.  You have to produce an example of each chart.  

 

·          Your report should include the description of the situation, objectives (why you are summarizing the data), description of variables (how measured), and interpretation of relevant charts/graphs produced. 

 

 

(i)                               Pie Chart:  This type of chart fits for describing the proportions expressed by percentages. Under circumstances like that we want to know what percentage a certain event occupies against the whole part, pie chart is suitable particularly.

 

              

                      The graph below shows the breakdown users on georgia.gov so we can determine who is coming to the portal and customize information based on their needs. The pie chart shows total amount of users broken down into four divisions. As shown from the data, the largest user group is citizens which is what our

 

 

 

 

 

 

(ii)                             Column and Bar Chart: When people want to compare the results under different circumstances, such as the sales revenues of an identical product in different countries or regions, or the sales revenues of a certain type of product in the past several years, column and bar chart is a very useful tool to inform people of the information for which they are seeking.

 

The graph below Number of Online Services offered by Georgia shows a column chart to illustrate the increasing number of services provided by the State of Georgia. You can see from the graph the rising trend of online services being offered by the State of Georgia. Notice the large spike in services starting in Q1, 2002. This increase coincides with the launch of the new portal www.georgia.gov.

 

 

 

                                      

 

 

 

Also, we may use another chart ‘Annual Populations of Georgia and Neighbors’ to demonstrate both a comparison picture about the general population in six states as well as growth in population by years 2000-2002 for each state. Immediately, you can see population comparisons between each state and population growth patterns for each state.

 

 

State

2002

2001

2000

Alabama

4,486,508

4,468,912

4,451,975

Georgia

8,560,310

8,405,677

8,234,373

North Carolina

8,320,146

8,206,105

8,082,261

Tennessee

5,797,289

5,749,398

5,703,246

Florida

16,713,149

16,373,330

16,051,395

South Carolina

4,107,183

4,062,125

4,023,725

 

Data is from US Census Bureau

 

 

(iii)                            Line Chart: Line chart ‘Number of pages served on georgia.gov’ is a very good tool to estimate a trend, such as the up or down trend of the stock market or the sales trend of a particular product over a year.  We do a line chart in order to get some pieces of information to help judge future trend.

 

Following line chart demonstrates the development trend of web pages served by georgia.gov from 1/2002 – 12/2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, you can observe that there is an upward trend in web hits for georgia.gov. This trend indicates that more visitors are coming to the web site for the year 2002. This growth pattern shows that more people are using the site every month. The peaks indicate when more people may going to the portal such as in May when Legislature is finishing up or a dip in June may be caused by Summer vacations and kids out of school.  

 

 

 

(iv)                            Histogram: Histograms and Frequency tables are used when we want to know how observations distribute in various categories. Below is a Histogram chart showing the frequency of online services offered by states.  This can be used to show how the number of Georgia’s online services compare to other states.

 

 

The Histogram shows a normal bell curve except for slight skew to the right indicating that a few states have a large number of online services Georgia falls into the largest frequency range, 11-16 online services.

 

Frequency table for Online Services

 

 

 

Upper limit

Category

Frequency

1

<=1

0

6

 1- 6

3

11

 6- 11

5

16

 11- 16

11

21

 16- 21

6

26

 21- 26

9

31

 26- 31

4

36

 31- 36

5

41

 36- 41

2

 

>41

5

 

 

 

(v)                              Scatter Chart: We use this type of chart because we want to observe the relationship between two observations in series of variables. This chart is a bit similar to line chart and the two charts are easy to confuse. The characteristics of the two charts, however, are different. Intrinsically, the information reflected by scatter chart is the possible relationship between the two observations.  We do not use scatter chart to evaluate or estimate a trend which should be done by line chart. Below is a scatter chart used to see if there is a relationship between the amount of online services offered and the allocated web budget for the each state.

 

 

With a Correlation of 0.717, there clearly seems to be a relationship in the amount of online services offered by the each state and the amount of money spent on the State’s portal.

 

 

 

Case Discussion:

 

I downloaded date for the NASDAQ and the DOW indexes. The time period for the first chart is December. 1st, 2001 - January. 29th, 2003 and the second timeframe is for the last ten years. This data will help me analyze the current market trends in the stock market in comparison to the long term trends.

 

Below are two charts – one for the activity of the DOW and NASDAQ indexes for the last 90 days and one for the DOW and NASDAQ indexes over the last ten years. I am using the two charts to compare historical data to show while the market is staying flat over the last 90 days due to the uncertain economy, one can see that historically the markets have continually shown an upward trend over the long run.

 

 

Notice the spike in the indexes from late 1999 to mid 2000, especially the NASDAQ index. This is due to the over valuation of dot com and internet stocks. The market has adjusted to overvaluement of stocks as well as factors such as bankruptcy, terrorism, and war. I predict a rise in the markets within the next year due to the historical trend of the stock market.