ShmoopTube

00:05

Data interpretation, a la Shmoop. You and your best friend do everything together.

00:12

Let's face it, you two are pretty much attached at the hip.

00:15

It's becoming complicated though, because you're starting to get a little better at

00:18

things than your BFF. You won the cookie eating contest.

00:23

You beat them in the potato sack race. You were able to swim all the way across the

00:28

lake. You can feel things coming to a head.

00:33

So how can you two still be friends if you are so much better at everything than they

00:37

are? The answer? Data Interpretation!

00:40

In the world of Pre-Algebra -- and in many other mathematical worlds as well...

00:45

...data interpretation is the expression and analysis of data that you've collected.

00:50

A couple common tools used to interpret information and express data are Bar Graphs and Pie Charts.

00:57

No, no, no -- this kind of bar and this kind of pie.

01:01

Let's revisit the infamous cookie eating contest of last December...

01:05

...and make a bar graph of the results over the course of time.

01:08

As you'll recall, the goal was to eat 25 Chips Ahoy cookies as quickly as possible.

01:13

So yeah -- you won. But let's interpret this data with a bar graph

01:17

for you, and one for your friend... ...to see how we might be able to give your

01:21

friend some cookie-eating cred. Let's break the bars into chunks of time.

01:25

The first bar will be cookies consumed from start to minute two.

01:29

The second bar will be cookies consumed from minute two to minute four...

01:33

... and so on and so forth. Let's look at the two graphs side by side.

01:38

Is there any way we can make your friend the hero in this case?

01:42

As it turns out, your friend is actually a sprinter in the cookie consuming department.

01:45

He ate 8 cookies in the first two minutes while you only ate 5.

01:49

Of course you did come back for the win. But we definitely think his speedy consumption

01:54

is deserving of a shout-out. So... if you feel like you are always winning

01:58

- or always losing, for that matter... ...remember - there are different ways to

02:02

interpret the data from any particular event. And sometimes the interpretation may turn

02:07

you from a loser... into a wiener.

Full Transcript