The five-number summary is the minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum. In a box plot, we draw a box from the first quartile to the third quartile. A vertical line goes through the box at the median. The whiskers go from each quartile to the minimum or maximum.
Is this some kind of cute cat video? No! Box and whisker plots seek to explain data by showing a spread of all the data points in a sample. The "whiskers" are the two opposite ends of the data. This video is more fun than a handful of catnip.
We've constructed our box-and-whiskers plot, which helps us visualize the entire range but also you could say the middle, roughly the middle half of our numbers.
A box and whisker plot is a handy tool to understand the age distribution of students at a party. It helps us identify the minimum, maximum, median, and quartiles of the data.
A box-and-whisker plot is a handy tool for visualizing data. By ordering numbers, we can find the range, median, and quartiles. Practice makes perfect when mastering these concepts!
Here's a box and whisker plot of the same distribution that does show outliers. Notice how the outliers are shown as dots, and the whisker had to change. The whisker extends to the farthest point in the data set that wasn't an outlier, which was 15 . Here's the original data set again for comparison.
Box and whisker plots Learn Worked example: Creating a box plot (odd number of data points) Worked example: Creating a box plot (even number of data points)
