Question

Phone navigation The bar graph displays data on the percent of smartphone owners in several age groups who say that they use their phone for turn-by-turn navigation.

(a) Describe what the graph reveals about the relationship between age group and use of smartphones for navigation.

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

Short answer

Part (a) 65+ are the least user of smartphones whereas 18-29 years are the highest user of smartphones for navigation.

Part (b) No

Step-by-step solution

Part (a) Step 1. Given information.

The given bar graph is shown below:

Part (a) Step 2. Relationship between age group and use of smartphones for navigation.

Because the tallest bar in the bar graph corresponds to the category "18-29," the age group most likely to use a smartphone for navigation is 18 to 29 years old.

The 65+ age group has the lowest likelihood of using a smartphone for navigation, as the lowest bar in the bar graph corresponds to the category " 65+ ".

Because each of the bars corresponding to these categories has a height of at least 50, the majority of 18 to 64-year-olds appear to use smartphones for navigating.

Because the bar corresponding to this age category has a height of less than 50, it appears that the majority of people aged 65 and up do not use smartphones for navigating.

Part (b) Step 1. Explanation.

According to the bar graph, around 80% of 18-29-year-olds, 72% of 30-49-year-olds, 51% of 50-64-year-olds, and 37% of 65+-year-olds use smartphones for navigation.

If we sum all of these percentages together, we get more than 100 percent, making a pie chart inappropriate.

Furthermore, because the different bars do not reflect a part of the same whole (as each age category is analyzed independently), a pie chart is not appropriate.