When you test different kinds of things, such as four types of paper towel or four magnets, a bar chart is the best way to show the results. Each bar is one kind of thing, and the height shows the result.
Read the chart carefully. Find the tallest and shortest bars, read their values from the scale, and compare them. You can ask 'How many more?' by subtracting. Check that the scale goes up in equal steps; if not, the bars can give the wrong impression.
Worked example
Magnet A picked up 9 paper clips and magnet D picked up 4. How many more did A pick up?
- Read the bars: A = 9, D = 4.
- 9 − 4 = 5.
Answer:Magnet A picked up 5 more paper clips.
Key words
- scale
- the numbers up the side of a chart
- compare
- look at what is bigger or smaller
- result
- what was measured in the test
- evidence
- results that help answer a question
Practise this
New questions every time.