To assess the symmetry of a histogram and determine if it is symmetric, right skewed, or left skewed, you need to consider the shape of the distribution of the data.
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Symmetric: The histogram is symmetric if the left side of the histogram is a mirror image of the right side.
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Right skewed (positively skewed): The histogram is right skewed if the tail on the right side is longer or fatter than the left side. In this case, most of the data is concentrated on the left.
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Left skewed (negatively skewed): The histogram is left skewed if the tail on the left side is longer or fatter than the right side. In this case, most of the data is concentrated on the right.
Given that you mentioned "the F scale runs from 0 to 5" and that it’s an F scale for tornadoes, the distribution of tornado strengths might be expected to have more lower scores (F0, F1) and few higher scores (F4, F5) since very strong tornadoes are rare.
- If the histogram shows a longer tail towards the higher F scale (the right side), it would be considered right skewed.
- If it shows a longer tail towards the lower F scale (the left side), it would be considered left skewed.
- If the frequencies are relatively evenly distributed across the F scale without a pronounced tail to either side, it would be symmetric.
Without the visual representation of the histogram, I can't provide a definitive answer. But consider these definitions while analyzing the histogram, and you should be able to determine whether it is symmetric, right skewed, or left skewed. If it is not significantly skewed either way, you might conclude that it is "not sufficiently skewed."
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