plot

(noun)

a graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device

Related Terms

Examples of plot in the following topics:

  • Contour Plots

    • Contour plots portray data for three variables in two dimensions.
    • The plot contains a number of contour lines.
    • Each contour line is shown in an X-Y plot and has a constant value on a third variable.
    • An alternative way to draw the plot is shown in Figure 2.
    • A contour plot showing calories as a function of fat and carbohydrates

  • 3D Plots

    • Just as two-dimensional scatter plots show the data in two dimensions, 3D plots show data in three dimensions.
    • Figure 1 shows a 3D scatter plot of the fat, non-sugar carbohydrates, and calories from a variety of cereal types.
    • Interactively rotating 3D plots can sometimes reveal aspects of the data not otherwise apparent.
    • A 3D scatter plot showing fat, non-sugar carbohydrates, and calories from a variety of cereal types
    • An alternative 3D scatter plot showing fat, non-sugar carbohydrates, and calories.

  • 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.
    • The dot plot in Figure 3 shows the number of people playing on a Sunday and on a Wednesday.
    • A dot plot showing the number of M & M's of various colors in a bag of M & M's.
    • A dot plot showing the number of people playing various card games on a Wednesday.

  • Plotting Points on a Graph

    • The plot can be drawn by hand or by a mechanical or electronic plotter.
    • Graphs can also be used to read off the value of an unknown variable plotted as a function of a known one.
    • Plots play an important role in statistics and data analysis.
    • As an example of plotting points on a graph, consider one of the most important visual aids available to us in the context of statistics: the scatter plot.
    • The researcher would then plot the data in a scatter plot, assigning "lung capacity" to the horizontal axis, and "time holding breath" to the vertical axis.

  • Segmented bar and mosaic plots

    • A segmented bar plot is a graphical display of contingency table information.
    • Examine both of the segmented bar plots.
    • A mosaic plot is a graphical display of contingency table information that is similar to a bar plot for one variable or a segmented bar plot when using two variables.
    • Figure 1.39(a) shows a mosaic plot for the number variable.
    • The one-variable mosaic plot for number and the two-variable mosaic plot for both number and spam.

  • Statistical Graphics

    • Statistical graphics allow results to be displayed in some sort of pictorial form and include scatter plots, histograms, and box plots.
    • They include plots such as scatter plots , histograms, probability plots, residual plots, box plots, block plots and bi-plots.
    • Many familiar forms, including bivariate plots, statistical maps, bar charts, and coordinate paper were used in the 18th century.
    • A scatter plot helps identify the type of relationship (if any) between two variables.

  • Graphing Quantitative Variables

    • The upcoming sections cover the following types of graphs: (1) stem and leaf displays, (2) histograms, (3) frequency polygons, (4) box plots, (5) bar charts, (6) line graphs, (7) scatter plots, and (8) dot plots.
    • Graph types such as box plots are good at depicting differences between distributions.
    • Scatter plots are used to show the relationship between two variables.

  • Exercises

    • For the following data, plot the theoretically expected z score as a function of the actual z score (a Q-Q plot).
    • For the "SAT and College GPA" case study data, create a contour plot looking at College GPA as a function of Math SAT and High School GPA.
    • For the "SAT and College GPA" case study data, create a 3D plot using the variables College GPA, Math SAT, and High School GPA.

  • Graphs for Quantitative Data

    • A plot is a graphical technique for representing a data set, usually as a graph showing the relationship between two or more variables.
    • Graphs can also be used to read off the value of an unknown variable plotted as a function of a known one.
    • Plots play an important role in statistics and data analysis.
    • Below are brief descriptions of some of the most common plots:
    • This kind of plot is also called a scatter chart, scattergram, scatter diagram, or scatter graph.

  • Constructing a normal probability plot (special topic)

    • We construct a normal probability plot for the heights of a sample of 100 men as follows:
    • Because of the complexity of these calculations, normal probability plots are generally created using statistical software.
    • Construction details for a normal probability plot of 100 men's heights.
    • To create the plot based on this table, plot each pair of points, (zi,xi).