Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each dataset to the plot type that reveals its story best.
- Temperature sampled every minute for a day
- Height vs. weight for 500 people
- Distribution of 1000 measurement errors
- Energy budget split into categories
- Bar chart
- Line plot vs. time
- Histogram
- Scatter plot
Hints
- Ask what question the data answers: trend over time? correlation? distribution shape? comparison of parts?
- Scatter plots exist to expose relationships between two measured variables, no time axis needed.
Show the answer
- Temperature sampled every minute for a day → Line plot vs. time
- Height vs. weight for 500 people → Scatter plot
- Distribution of 1000 measurement errors → Histogram
- Energy budget split into categories → Bar chart
Why
Plot choice is question choice: lines for evolution, scatters for correlation, histograms for distribution, bars for comparison. The right plot makes the conclusion visible before any statistics are computed.
Practise Visualising scientific computation
The app has 8 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Physics I is free to start.
More questions on Visualising scientific computation
- Complete the statement with the correct term.
- Match each chart type to its best use case.
- Order the steps to create a scientific plot from raw data.
- You simulate a pendulum and plot angle vs. time, the curve looks like a clean cosine, but its amplitude…
- A histogram and a bar chart are exactly the same type of plot.