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How to Do Math Line, Bar & Pie Graphs

If you have data that you'd like to present in an easy to understand diagram, you can do so by creating a line graph, bar graph, or pie chart. Each type of chart is prominently better at showing certain types of data than the others. If your data is meant to show increasing or decreasing numbers over a period of time, a line graph is best. To make a table of simple stats, a bar graph is best. Comparing different sets of data in correlation with each other, like percentages for example, is best showed with pie graphs.

Things You'll Need

  • Data findings
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Instructions

  1. Line Graph

    • 1

      Create a graph that consists of a long horizontal line near the bottom of your paper and an equally sized vertical line connected to the left edge of the horizontal line.

    • 2

      Label the primary data sets that need to be shown along the horizontal line, in chronological order from left to right. For example, if you were making a graph showing the decreasing sales of a certain store through 6 months, you'd label each month individually on the bottom line.

    • 3

      Label the vertical line with equally distanced points and fill in the numbers that correlate with your data, in order, from the bottom of the line to the top.

    • 4

      Select the bottom line category and place a dot directly over it in order to record the data, as high as the number it corresponds with is on the vertical line. Connect the dots with straight lines after you've recorded them all to show the rise/fall of numbers through the period of the data.

    Bar Graph

    • 5

      Create another blank graph by making a large right angle with a vertical and horizontal line.

    • 6

      Label the horizontal line with the separate sets of data. For example, if you were going to show temperature changes in New York City over 6 months, you'd label the individual months in order across the line from left to right.

    • 7

      Label the vertical line with the numbers or matching data in order from bottom to top.

    • 8

      Create rectangles over the data recordings on the bottom line and make them as high as their correlating number on the left side of the graph.

    Pie Graph

    • 9

      Create a circle to serve as the graph.

    • 10

      Record the data by creating "slices" of the "pie" that are roughly the same size to correlate with their percentage number. For example, if the first data set contained 50 percent, you would simply draw a line down the center of the "pie" to cut it in half. You'd then record the remaining percentages by creating more "slices" within the remaining half.

    • 11

      Color each "slice" a different color and create a Key on the side of the graph to show which piece of data each color represents.

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