ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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Being a scientist is a ton of fun. [Scientist wearing a lab coat]

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Scientists get to explore new places... [Guy at a waterfall]

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Study interesting plants and animals… [A pink elephant]

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Stare into the universe and examine the stars... [Telescope looking up to space]

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And occasionally blow things up! [Smoke coming from the desk]

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Though…that's not always on purpose…

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But there are also some not-so-thrilling times, too… [Piles of papers]

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And that's where data and graphing comes in.

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See, when a scientist is out examining the way a monkey sleeps or how a weird kind of [Monkey sleeping on the floor]

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vine grows or how this cloud somehow keeps showing up in the exact same shape of a toilet,

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what they're ultimately doing is collecting lots and lots of data. [Paper full of values and equations]

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That's actually the entire purpose of observations and experiments – to produce data.

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Yup.

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Even cloud toilet data.

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But one look at the wild and crazy notes of an scientist, and you'll realize that this [Page full of random letters and numbers]

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data isn't always the easiest thing to understand. [Woman looking confused]

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Luckily for us, they know that too!

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So how do they go about showcasing their data to other people?

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Easy!

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They use graphs.

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Not only can graphs be useful for explaining findings to others, but they also make it [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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easy for scientists to see trends and explain results.

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And depending on what kind of information you're working with and what you want to show, [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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there's a few different kinds of graphs to choose from.

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A pie graph is great for when you're in the mood for a snack, and want to summarize data [Hand takes a slice of the pie]

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into parts and percentages.

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Okay, so maybe they only look like pies…oh well.

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You can still eat pie while using them. [The rest of the pie is taken]

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If you wanted to show that the majority of people you interviewed prefer Cheerios over [Guy spinning a basketball on his finger]

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Lucky Charms, you could show it in a pie graph like so.

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[Guy stood next to his pie chart]

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A bar graph, on the other hand, is better suited for when you want to compare sizes.

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If you wanted to show how many people in your class preferred a certain super hero, for [Boy wearing a Superman shirt]

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instance, you could break your classmates into groups on a graph like this.

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This bar graph would compare the sizes of each group nicely, but unfortunately it wouldn't [Bar chart shown]

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explain why no one picked The Hulk.

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C'mon, guys…this is exactly why he's always so angry… [The Hulk looking angry]

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If you were looking to show changes of one thing when compared to another variable, then

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a line graph would be your best bet.

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Say you wanted to track the temperature in your city over the course of the whole week,

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you'd probably use a line graph!

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[Woman in a bikini next to a line graph]

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So whether bar, line, or pie, using a chart can help you explain your findings and observations

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in an easy-to-understand way. [Woman looking happy now she understands]

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Each kind of chart has its strengths and weaknesses depending on the data you're working with,

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but once you've picked the right one, you're all ready to go…

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And, of course, the obvious best of the three is the pie chart.

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We know it's not really pie…but if you believe hard enough…maybe… [Pie chart turns into a real pie]

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