Question

Will works for a company which produces both computer hardware and computer software. He is preparing for a meeting with his boss. He has been asked to compile sales data from a five-year period for both hardware and software sales. The data Will has gathered is in the table below, but it is scrambled and hard to read. Sales are in hundreds of thousands of dollars. “H” and “S” indicate hardware and software, respectively.
Year
2003
2004
2002
2005
2002
2003
2004
2001
2005
2001
Sales
35.5
42.0
40.6
40.6
40.1
42.6
35.2
42.8
38.4
42.2
Div.
S
H
H
S
S
H
S
H
H
S

In order to make this data more readable, Will has decided to put it into a graph. Which of the following graphs accurately represents this data?
I.A pie chart titled Sales (dollars times 100,000). II.A graph has year on the x-axis and sales (dollars times 100,000) on the y-axis. Points are plotted on the graph.
III.A bar graph has year on the x-axis and sales (dollars times 100,000) on the y-axis, from 35 to 43. 2 bars are at each year time point.IV.A line graph has year on the x-axis and sales (dollars times 100,000) on the y-axis, from 35 to 43. 2 lines are on the graph.
a.
I
b.
II
c.
III
d.
IV

Answer 1

c. III

A side-by-side bar graph with year on the x-axis and sales on the y-axis (35–43) is the clearest accurate representation: it shows both hardware and software values for each year.

(I is inappropriate for time-series/category comparisons; II plots points but doesn't distinguish H vs S; IV could imply misleading continuity between years.)