Lesson 24 — Activity 3: Chart Analysis



Getting Ready


You now know the parts of a chart and how to read it. But how can a chart help you make a decision? Charts allow you to gather information and organize it in a way that allows you to compare choices. In this activity, you will practise analyzing charts.


Courtesy of iStock


Let's look at how a chart can help you choose an apartment. We have found three advertisements in a local paper that have the following information.


Apartment A:


$650/month

*utilities included
*500 square feet in size

Apartment B:


$575/month

*utilities extra ($80/month)
*550 square feet in size

Apartment C:


$500/month

*utilities extra ($125 month)
*525 square feet in size


This is a lot of information to read and understand! An easy way to compare the three places is to put them in a chart.

Let's use rent, utilities, size, and total cost for our headings.


Courtesy of ADLC


Let's use Apartment A, Apartment B, and Apartment C for row titles.


Courtesy of ADLC

The information for Apartment A is entered like this:


Courtesy of ADLC

The information for Apartment B is entered like this:


Courtesy of ADLC

Finally, the information for Apartment C is entered like this:


Courtesy of ADLC

Now you have a chart that will let you compare information without having to look at a whole bunch of different pieces of paper.


  Self-check!

Try this!


Click here for a Flash activity where you will work on creating a chart in order to compare facts.