Paradigm Specialising in O Level Mathematics
Statistic Explanation
Misleading graphs typically can be broken down into two parts:
1) Aspect of the graph that is misleading
2) How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
Things to look out for:
Vertical axis does not start from 0 / Missing scale on the vertical axis.
Unequal / Missing intervals on the x-axis. (e.g. Data in 2020, 2021, 2024 given)
Pictograms not only increasing in height, but in area.
Title of the graph (e.g. Drastic increase, Sharp rise)
NOTE: Your answers must be in the context of the question.
State one aspect of the above graph that may be misleading and explain how this
may lead to a misinterpretation of the graph.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The three objects are all not the same shape. One is a cylinder and the other two are
spheres.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
It is not clear how ticket prices can be determined as readers can have different
interpretations. For Hockey, one can look at the centre of the top of the cylinder or
the top of the diagram. For Baseball and Basketball, one may consider the centre of
the objects or the top of the circles.
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2 The graph shows the number of accidents occurring at a road junction over a number
of years. State one aspect of the graph that may be misleading and explain how this
may lead to a misinterpretation of the graph.
Ans:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The year 2014 is left out in the graph.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
Since the year 2014 is left out, we cannot conclude the trend of accidents from 2013-
2017 accurately.
3 Wally draws this graph to show his
monthly water bill for each of the last
three months.
State one aspect of the graph that may
be misleading and explain how this
may lead to a misinterpretation of the
graph.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The bar chart does not start from $0.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
The reader might be misled to thinking that cost of water is May is half as much as
compared in July if they just compare the height of the bars.
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4 The graph shows the number of
unemployed workers in Country X for
the last 10 years.
State one aspect of the graph that may
be misleading and explain how this
may lead to a misinterpretation of the
graph.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
There is no vertical scale and the reader does not know if it starts at zero.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
The reader may hence assume that the unemployed workers have halved from 2009
to 2019.
5 The graphs below show the result of sales of two competing brands over a few years.
State one aspect of the graphs which may be misleading and explain how this may
lead to a misinterpretation of the graphs.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The scale of the 𝑦-axis for both graphs are different.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
Brand B looks like the preferred brand as the graph appears higher compared to
Brand A.
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6 Average resale price of 4 room and 5 room HDB flats from 2013 to 2015.
Mr. Pang says that the price of a resale 5 room flat is thrice the price of a resale 4
room flat in 2015. Is Mr. Pang correct? Explain.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
Vertical scale does not start from zero.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
2
Price of 5 room flat is 1 9 times the price of a 4 room flat.
7 The cart shows the annual sales of bicycles of four companies in 2019.
Explain how this chart may be misleading.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
No because the width of the bar presenting PP company is wider than other bar (or
twice the width as others)
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
This gives the false impression that the PP annual sales company is not just 4 times
as many as the annual sales of BB company (or anything similar)
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8 The graph shows the sales at a particular mall.
Explain why the mean sales are not a good indication as a central measure.
Answer:
Mean is not a good indicator as there is an outlier.
(a) State one misleading feature about the presentation of the data in Figure 1.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The horizontal axis showing the dates have unequal intervals.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
For example, it is 1 month apart between the first bar and the second bar. But it is 7
days apart between the second bar and the third bar.
OR
The last bar states “Today”
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
it is unclear which day that is.
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(b) After studying the trend in Figure 2, Sam claims that the total number of
Coronavirus cases in Singapore will decrease in April.
Do you agree with Sam? Explain your answer.
Answer:
(b) No, I do not agree with Sam. The data presents the number of new coronavirus
cases confirmed on a daily basis. It does not report the total number of coronavirus
cases in Singapore.
10 Twenty-four boys took part in the high jump event in a school sports meet.
Their records in centimetres are shown in the stem-and-leaf diagram.
Stem Leaf
11 0 2
12 1 2 6
13
14 2 3 3 4 4 5 5
15 6 6 7 7
16 0 0 1 1 5 5 5 6
Key: 11|0 represents 110 cm
Would you use the mode or the median as the most appropriate measure of average
in this case? Justify your answer.
Answer:
The modal distance is not suitable as it is far away from the rest of the data. Since
the above distribution is skewed, thus I would use the median
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11 The stem-and-leaf diagram shows the time spent by 12 students from school B on
mobile phones on a particular Sunday.
2 2
3 0 4 7
(a) Explain why the mean may not be an
4 1 5
appropriate average to summarise the time
5 3 8 8 9
spent by these students on mobile phones.
6 5
7
8
Answer: The mean is inappropriate because there is an
9 2
outlier of 9.2h.
Key: 2|2 represents 2.2
hours
12
[1]
[1]
The graph shows the number of COVID-19 tests per million people by a TV Channel
in Argentina.
(a) State one aspect of the graph that may be misleading.
(b) Explain how this may lead to the viewer’s misinterpretation of the graph.
Ans:
1) Aspect of the graph that is misleading
(a) The heights of the bars were not drawn to any vertical scale.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
(b) The distorted height difference made the viewers see that Argentina tests almost
as many people as the USA where in fact the USA test is 20 times more than that of
Argentina.
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13 The bar chart shows the number of traffic accidents resulting in injury from 2014 [1]
to 2018.
([Link]
in-singapore)
State how this bar chart can be misleading to reader.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The bars in the bar chart do not start from zero.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
The relative heights of the bars can mislead the reader into thinking the differences
are larger than what is actually given. For example, the frequency for 2016 is 8304
and the frequency for 2017 is 7726, so the difference is 578, but the height of the
2016 bar is twice that for the 2017 bar.
14 Explain how the line graph above may be misleading. [1]
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The title of the line graph is biased
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
as it does not allow reader to make a judgement.
OR
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The vertical axis does not start form 0,
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
which exaggerates the differences. (Can accept without the reasoning)
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15 The pie chart shows the number of girls and boy who scored full marks in [2]
Mathematics test. Based on the chart, June concluded that on average, boys did
better than girls in Mathematics. Explain why June made that conclusion and why
she may be wrong.
Answer:
Reason: From the pie-chart, angle/area of the sector/portion of circle representing
boys who scored full marks is bigger than the angle of the sector representing girls
who scored full marks.
Why wrong: It only shows that there are more boys than girls who scored full marks
but we cannot infer the performance of the boys as compared to the girls with just
this information.
16 The graph shows the sales figures of 2 gaming consoles manufactured by a company. [1]
A sales executive from the company claimed that the chart showed comparable
growth in the sales of the 2 gaming consoles. Do the chart support his claim?
Justify your answer with reference to the chart.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
No because the scale for the vertical axis is inconsistent.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
It gives the impression that there is comparable growth in sales of the 2 gaming
consoles.
17 The line graphs below show the monthly average minimum and maximum
temperatures of Bangkok (Thailand) and Singapore, for the year 2020.
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(a) Huda claims that Singapore experienced wider differences between the
[1]
maximum and minimum temperatures. Explain why the data presented above may
have been misleading for Huda.
(b) Give a suggestion on how the data above can be presented in a clear way.
[1]
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
(a) Due to the different scale used for the vertical axis.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
The gap between lowest(min) and highest(max) temperature appear greater for
Singapore, hence the reader may conclude that the temperature difference is greater.
(b) Use the same scale for vertical axis or Draw both on the same grid/same
graphs/same axes
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18 The graph shows the number of cyclists in an annual cycling marathon for the years
2017 to 2019.
(a) State one aspect of the graph that may be misleading. [1]
(b) Explain how this may lead to a misinterpretation of the graph. [1]
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
(a) The vertical axis is not labelled at the start/ No “0” on the y-axis. OR The size of
the picture not only increases with height, but also in the width.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
(b) It is difficult to estimate the number of cyclists for 2017 and 2018. OR Unclear
as to whether the height or the area is used to determine the number of cyclists.
19 The graph shows the total mass of food waste collected around a particular
neighbourhood at the end of each given year.
[1]
(a) State on misleading features of the graph.
[1]
(b) Explain how this feature affects the reader’s interpretation of the graph.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
(a) If it is not clear if the height or the area of the image is used to determine the
mass of food waste collected.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
(b) The height and the area of the image is not proportional. The readers may think
that there is more than 100 million tonnes increase in mass from 1960-2000.
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20 State one aspect of the graph that may be misleading and explain how this may lead [2]
to a misinterpretation of the graph.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The scale chosen for the vertical axis is inappropriate, due to the units of the total
food waste being in kilo tonnes. OR The spacing of the numbers / intervals on the
vertical axis is/are more condensed.
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
Thus, resulting in the differences of the food wastage across the years to be less
significant than it should be.
21 A website shows a poster of the poaching statistics of African elephants. [1]
Explain how the poster above may be misleading.
Answer:
Aspect of the graph that is misleading
The sizes of the two elephants are not in proportion
How it will lead to a misinterpretation of the graph
which will mislead readers into thinking that the number of elephants killed is larger
than the actual number.
or
If 22,000 elephants are killed each year, in 10 years’ time, 22,000x10 = 220,000 will
be killed. But 220,000 is 44% of the population and not 1/5 as stated in the headline.
This will mislead leaders into thinking that only 20% of the population will be wiped
out.
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