Lesson 24 — Activity 2: Reading and Interpreting a Chart
Completion requirements
Lesson 24 — Activity 2:
Reading and Interpreting a
Chart
Getting Ready
Knowing how to use information from charts and diagrams will help you make decisions. For example, charts can help you decide when to take a holiday based on the information given about the
temperature
(e.g., when the
temperature
is the nicest during the year for where you want to go).
Try This:
Monthly Temperatures for Mexico
Courtesy of ADLC
Look at the chart above, which shows the monthly average temperatures and monthly average rainfalls for Mexico. According to the chart , which three months have the highest temperatures?
According to the chart , June, July, and August have the highest temperatures at 32 degrees. If you like hot weather, you might decide to take your holiday during one of these months!
Now that you know how to read a chart, we are going to look at different information in a chart to interpret what information the chart is telling us. To do this, we will use the chart below to figure out distances between cities in Alberta.
Courtesy of ADLC
As you can see, this is a different kind of chart. This is only one way to use a chart; there are many more ways a chart can be used. Let's take a closer look at this chart.
Let's say that you currently live in Red Deer and have just been offered a job in Ft. McMurray. You can use this chart to figure out how far you have to move.
1. Find Red Deer in the headings (blue).
2. Find Ft. McMurray in the left column (yellow).
Courtesy of ADLC
Go across and find where the column and the row meet.
Courtesy of ADLC
You can see that they meet at the highlighted cell.
This chart is telling you that Red Deer and Ft. McMurray are 587 km apart!
Click here for a Flash activity where you will find out how far it is between
various cities and towns in Alberta.
Self-check!
Try this!
Use the chart below to interpret the information in order to answer the question that follows.
Use the chart below to interpret the information in order to answer the question that follows.
Courtesy of ADLC
A sports fan decided to examine the
pattern
of medals won by certain countries at several Olympic games.
According to the chart, how many more medals did Brazil win than Finland over the two years?
In order to find out the answer, you have to interpret the chart. First, you have to add up the total number of medals for Brazil for the two years (15 + 12 = 27), then you have to add up the total number of medals for Finland for the two years (4 + 4
= 8). Next, you subtract to find out how many more Brazil won than Finland (27 – 8 = 19). Brazil won 19 more medals than Finland over the two years.
In order to find out the answer, you have to interpret the chart. First, you have to add up the total number of medals for Brazil for the two years (15 + 12 = 27), then you have to add up the total number of medals for Finland for the two years (4 + 4 = 8). Next, you subtract to find out how many more Brazil won than Finland (27 – 8 = 19). Brazil won 19 more medals than Finland over the two years.