Skip to main content
Statistics LibreTexts

2.10: Dot Plots

  • Page ID
    2289
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    Learning Objectives

    • Create and interpret dot plots
    • Judge whether a dot plot would be appropriate for a given data set

    Dot plots can be used to display various types of information. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) uses a dot plot to display the number of M & M's of each color found in a bag of M & M's. Each dot represents a single M & M. From the figure, you can see that there were \(3\) blue M & M's, \(19\) brown M & M's, etc.

    dot_plot_bag_MMs.jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A dot plot showing the number of M & M's of various colors in a bag of M & M's

    The dot plot in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) shows the number of people playing various card games on the Yahoo website on a Wednesday. Unlike Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), the location rather than the number of dots represents the frequency.

    dot_plot_wed_games.jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): A dot plot showing the number of people playing various card games on a Wednesday

    The dot plot in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\) shows the number of people playing on a Sunday and on a Wednesday. This graph makes it easy to compare the popularity of the games separately for the two days, but does not make it easy to compare the popularity of a given game on the two days.

    games_overlaya.jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): A dot plot showing the number of people playing various card games on a Sunday and on a Wednesday
    games_overlay.jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): An alternate way of showing the number of people playing various card games on a Sunday and on a Wednesday

    The dot plot in Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\) makes it easy to compare the days of the week for specific games while still portraying differences among games.


    This page titled 2.10: Dot Plots is shared under a Public Domain license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Lane via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

    • Was this article helpful?