What term describes a frequency distribution?

What term describes a frequency distribution?

• A. Histogram
• B. Bar chart
• C. Pie chart
• D. Boxplot

Answer: (A)

Histograms describe the frequency distribution of a quantitative variable. They divide the data range into bins and show how many observations fall into each bin with bar heights, making the shape of the distribution clear—whether it’s symmetric, skewed, or has multiple peaks, and where values cluster or are sparse. This is exactly what a frequency distribution looks like when you want to see how often different ranges of values occur. The other graphs aren’t describing a frequency distribution in the same way: a bar chart is for categorical data, displaying counts by category; a pie chart shows parts of a whole as proportions; a boxplot summarizes spread and quartiles but doesn’t show frequency across the value range.

Histograms describe the frequency distribution of a quantitative variable. They divide the data range into bins and show how many observations fall into each bin with bar heights, making the shape of the distribution clear—whether it’s symmetric, skewed, or has multiple peaks, and where values cluster or are sparse. This is exactly what a frequency distribution looks like when you want to see how often different ranges of values occur.

The other graphs aren’t describing a frequency distribution in the same way: a bar chart is for categorical data, displaying counts by category; a pie chart shows parts of a whole as proportions; a boxplot summarizes spread and quartiles but doesn’t show frequency across the value range.