Box and Whisker Plots

Box and Whisker plots are used as a way to display a set of data.  There are a lot of things you can tell about the data, by just looking at the graph. For instance, you know the range that the data falls within, and the median just from the first glance!

Here is what a box and whisker plot looks like:

There's a lot of information on here, but what does it all mean? 

Lower Quartile and Upper Quartile can be kind of confusing. 

Lower Quartile is the median of the lower half of the data set

and...

Upper Quartile is the median of the upper half of the data set 

Box and whisker plots are kind of unique, but they have many different real-life applications, such as...

• You can use them to compare different sets of data.
• You could use it to compare the heights of students in a classroom (I believe we did this in class).
• It would be a great way to look at test scores and see where the majority of the scores lie.