Statistics for Business: Decision Making and Analysis, 3rd Edition

... The figure looks like a bar chart, but it isn’t. This chart instead uses bars to graph a sequence of counts over time. It is fine to use bars in this way to emphasize the changing level of a time series, but these are not displays of a frequency table.²

² The Wall Street Journal, “Ford’s Lincoln Brand Gets New . . . Life,” January 12, 2012.

Figure 3.4 Not every chart with bars shows the distribution of a categorical variable. This chart tracks sales, in thousands of vehicles, at Ford’s Lincoln division.

Figure 3.4 Full Alternative Text

Pie Chart

Pie charts are another way to draw the distribution of a categorical variable. A pie chart shows the ...