Data analysis

Question 1

What is the age that we currently live in often called

Answer 1

The Information Age

Question 2

What is one of the most important skills required in a business

Answer 2

The ability to understand and interpret various types of data -n to be able to select relevant data and ignore irrelevant data

Question 3

Where is data published

Answer 3

1 newspapers
2 company websites
3 government website

Question 4

How is data presented

Answer 4

1 bar charts
2 histograms
3 line graphs
4 pie chart

Question 5

Describe a pie chart

Answer 5

1 a circular chart
Split into sections to show values of a category

Question 6

What are the advantages of pie charts

Answer 6

1 good visual representation which shows relaxation size of a whole part which can make the different categories easier to compare than a table
2 give an overall picture of what is being presented

Question 7

What can pie charts be used for

Answer 7

To show market income, market share for a product or sales revenue for an individual item in a line
2 they can help businesses make decisions based on the sales revenue eg if sales of mushroom pizza has fewer sales they may consider withdrawing this product or promoting it more

Question 8

What are the disadvantages of pie charts

Answer 8

1 they only give an overall picture and not a detailed information
2 not effective in showing increase or decrease of promotions over time as trends are not shown and data can not be extrapolated.
3 they don’t show causal relationships such a impact of advertising on revenue.

Question 9

Describe bar graphs

Answer 9

1 a visual way to present data
2data is grouped into categories using rectangular bars with the height of the bar representing th frequency of the category
3 bars can be vertical or horizontal
4 one axis shows the categories being compared and the other axis shows the frequency

Question 10

What are the advantages of bar charts

Answer 10

1 data is presented in a clear format
2 they ar useful to summarize a large amount of data in a visual format
3 key values can be highlighted quickly

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of bar charts n

Answer 11

1 they can over simplify data which then needs further explanation to give an accurate analysis
2 data can be manipulated to show false results and patterns

Question 12

How do histograms differ from bar charts

Answer 12

1 They show quantitative data , bar charts show categorical data
2 data in a histogram is continuous so there are no gaps between bars which represent the different intervals
3 the area of each bar on a histogram is proportional to the frequency of each interval in a bar chart the height f the bar indicates the frequency
4 both the x and y axis on a histogram have a scale on a bar chart only the x axis has y axis has a numerical scal

Question 13

What is the main advantage of using a histogram

Answer 13

1 it can show the shape of the distribution for a large set of data
2good way to display data which has chronological categories or numerical groupings.
3 they can help to depict large differences in shape or symmetry of the data collected

Question 14

What are the weaknesses of histograms

Answer 14

1 they can not be used to extract values as data is grouped in intervals
2 effective use of data decreases when the range of the data is to wide - data is less meaningful if groups are to large

Question 15

What are line graphs used for

Answer 15

To compare 2 variable
X axis represents a continuous variable (time)
Y axis represents second variable (quantity or value)

Question 16

What is the advantage of a line graph

Answer 16

Can present a number of different categories on one graph - a range of data can be presented to an audience

Question 17

How can maps be useful to a business

Answer 17

1 presents information visually
2 a business may need information if relocating about driest areas in UK or where there is a dense
population
3 can use a map in a presentation to show global sales

Question 18

When are index numbers useful

Answer 18

1 they make numerical information easier to understand and
2 can show changes over time so that data can be compared because it standardizes data over time

Question 19

How do you calculate the index number for any period of time

Answer 19

Value in period/value in base period
X100

Question 20

When are index numbers most commonly used

Answer 20

For economic analysis eg

Question 21

What is an advantage of using index numbers

Answer 21

You can compare changes over time and make the value of these changes clear eg measuring changing prices comparing prices levels in current year (index figure) compared to price levels in the previous year (previous years index figures) This gives the rate of price increase - inflation - can use this to indicate how much prices should change by