A bar chart is titled 'Number of pets for each student in Mr. Bernhardt’s class.' The y-axis shows different number of pets. The x-axis ranges from 0 to 4 in increments of 1.

Question

A bar chart is titled 'Number of pets for each student in Ms. Daniel’s class.' The y-axis shows different number of pets. The x-axis ranges from 0 to 4 in increments of 1.
Compare the graphs showing the number of pets each student in Mr. Bernhardt’s and Ms. Daniel’s classes has. In 3–5 sentences, state whether the distributions are symmetric and provide at least two similarities and two differences.

Answer 1

To analyze the distributions of pets in Mr. Bernhardt’s and Ms. Daniel’s classes, we first observe the shape of each bar chart. If both distributions are roughly equal on either side of a central value, they can be considered symmetric; however, if one side has notably more or less frequency than the other, they may be skewed.

Two similarities between the graphs could include the range of numbers on the x-axis, which both extend from 0 to 4, allowing for a direct comparison of pet ownership up to the same maximum, and the overall purpose of displaying the number of pets owned by students, creating a common ground for analysis.

Conversely, a difference might be the specific distribution patterns; for example, one class may have more students with zero or one pet, whereas the other class could show higher counts of students having two or three pets. Additionally, the height of the bars representing each number of pets could vary significantly, indicating that one class has a greater diversity in pet ownership than the other.