Memorandum. Date: February 27, 2012 To: Dr. Reese From: Katelyn Ciaccio RE: Graphing and Charting Assignment

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1 Memorandum Date: February 27, 2012 To: Dr. Reese From: Katelyn Ciaccio RE: Graphing and Charting Assignment This document provides demonstrations and explanations of what I ve learned regarding the use of charts and graphs to represent different types of data. The software used to create these charts and graphs was Microsoft Excel I retrieved data on the interbank exchange rates from a historical exchange rate website. The purpose of this graph is to compare the monthly exchange rates of the USD with the AUD and the NZD over a one year period. A line chart was the most appropriate type of chart to use for this data because the data is trend data, so there is a time element involved that is most clearly represent by this style of chart. The line chart allows the data to be compared at various intervals over a period of time, which is exactly what we want it to do. Figure 1 shows that an American should have traveled to New Zealand in March 2011for the best exchange rate of the USD. Figure 1 also shows that the best time to travel to Australia was January Exchange Rate USD to AUD and NZD Interbank Rate Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug 1st of the month Sep Oct Nov Dec Question 1 AU Question 1 NZ Figure 1: Currency Exchange Rate USD to NZD and AUD for past year. Interbank Rate.

2 Figure 2 illustrate what happens when Paste Special is used. Exchange Rate USD to AUD and NZD Interbank Rate Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 1st of the month Question 1 AU Question 1 NZ Figure 2: Currency Exchange Rate USD to NZD and AUD for past year. Interbank Rate showing Paste Special. The data in Figure 3 was retrieved using three different search engines, Google, Google Scholar, and Yahoo. The data represents the number of search results returned after typing Carbon Footprint, and then Carbon Footprint into each of the three search engines. This data is not trend data, and there is no relationship between Google, Google Scholar, and Yahoo. This is nominal data, so a bar graph is the most appropriate type of chart to use for representing this data. The 2D version of this chart made it hard to see the contrast in data value, so a 3D chart was necessary, in this case, for the difference in data values to become apparent. However, in most cases, 2D charts are more appropriate because they do not skew the data like 3D charts and graphs tend to. I did this search on February 25, Figure 3 shows that Google is a more selective search engine that Yahoo, so fewer results were retrieved from Google searches than from Yahoo searches. Adding more specifications to the search, such as quotation marks or requesting scholarly articles only, also led to fewer results being retrieved.

3 35,000 30,000 31,200 Search Results (x's 1000) 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 14,700 14,100 13,900 Carbon Footprint "Carbon Footprint" 5, Google Google Scholar Yahoo Search Engine - February 25, 2012 Figure 3: Number of results retrieved by Google, Google Scholar, and Yahoo for two different searches Carbon Footprint and Carbon Footprint. The data in Figure 4 represents the number of male students vs. the number of female students enrolled in TSM 251 for the fall semester of A pie chart was the most appropriate type of chart to represent this data since the purpose is to illustrate contrasting percentages. The method used to obtain this dataa was accessing course information for TSM 251 course information from fall semester of Figure 4 shows that the majority of students enrolled in TSM 251 during fall semester of 2011 were females.

4 Males 33% Females 67% Figure 4: Percent of males and females in the course called TSM 251 for fall semester of 2011 at Michigan State University. The data in Figure 5 came from a study of the gender demographics of vegetarians in America and is represented in a pie chart. A pie chart is the most appropriate type of chart to use to represent the percent of males and females in a given population. Figure 5 shows that there are more female vegetarians then male vegetarians in the United States as of Males 41% Females 59% Females Males Figure 5: Percent of male and female vegetarians in the United States as of 2008.

5 I learned how to convert data inputted in an excel document into a chart or graph. I also learned that different types of graphs and charts are more or less appropriate depending on the type of data being represented. For example, to illustrate a comparison of data values in intervals over time, a 2D line chart is a great choice because it can show trends in the data. A bar graph is useful in comparing nominal data that does not occur over a time period in order to compare and contrast the differences in values. A pie chart is perfect for representing percentages of a population, for example, because it helps to illustrate contrasting size portions of different groups of data. I also learned how to make changes to items on the graph or chart. For example, adding titles along the axes, adding and moving the data labels to make the information as clear as possible, making sure that the largest portion of the pie chart was represented in a clockwise fashion, etc.

6 Sources Historical exchange rates. (2012). Retrieved from Vegetarian Times. (2008). Vegetarian times. Retrieved from