Question

Cool car colors The most popular colors for cars and light trucks change over time. Silver advanced past green in 2000 to become the most popular color worldwide, then gave way to shades of white in 2007. Here is a relative frequency table that summarizes data on the colors of vehicles sold worldwide in a recent year.

(a) What percent of vehicles would fall in the “Other” category?

(b) Make a bar graph to display the data. Describe what you see.

(c) Would it be appropriate to make a pie chart of these data? Explain.

Short answer

Part (a) 2%.

Part (b)

Part (c) Yes.

Step-by-step solution

Part (a) Step 1. Given information.

The given table is:

Part (a) Step 2. Find Other categories' percent of vehicles.

Other categories' percent of vehicles:

$$\begin{gathered} =100-\left(19+6+5+12+1+9+14+29+3\right) \\ =100-98 \\ =2\% \end{gathered}$$

Part (b) Step 1. Construct a frequency bar graph.

As can be seen, the most popular automotive colors are white and black, while green and gold are the least popular.

Part (c) Explain if it is appropriate to make a pie chart of these data.

We calculate the percentage of vehicles for "Other" in part (a) so that the total percentage of vehicles is 100 percent.

Because the total proportion of all categories is 100 percent, and each category represents a portion of that 100 percent, a pie chart is appropriate.