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Bar diagrams and pie charts are used to visualise the relationships between data, whether they’re categorical or numerical. Their distinctive shapes let you immediately understand the different data sections and how they line up.
A bar chart or a pie chart is used to show the information in a way that is easy to understand. Bar charts compare categories, and pie charts show parts of a whole. What are bar and pie charts used for? You can use a bar chart to compare sales figures for different products or a pie chart to show how much your budget goes towards each category, such as rent, food, and utilities.
What are a bar diagram and a pie chart?
Bar diagrams and Pie charts are two of the most commonly used diagrams to represent a given data. They both visually present the data, which is easy for people to understand. However, there are also many. A bar diagram is a vertical line graph that compares different categories of qualitative data. In contrast, a pie chart is a circular graph that depicts quantitative values as proportional segments of a whole. Both bar diagrams and pie charts can compare any data, such as revenue, expenses, etc., in any business or personal setting.
The bar diagram and the pie chart are graphical representations of numerical information, and their goal is to present data lucidly for legibility and comparisons. A bar diagram or a pie chart should be used when there are five or fewer categories of information.
In a bar diagram, bars are used to display numerical data. In pie charts, slices of a circle or pie represent numerical data. Bar charts are often used to represent categorical (or qualitative) data and numerical data. Pie charts also display categorical data, such as age groups or income groups.
What are bar and pie charts used for?
Bars of various lengths or heights reflect the values of a quantitative quantity, such as age or income. Pie charts can be used to display quantitative data, but they often display proportions rather than absolute values. A pie chart comprises slices, each of which illustrates a different aspect of a bigger image, such as the gender split in a population.
Businessers use bar graphs and pie charts to communicate information to customers, staff, and other businesses, such as sales data. Personal reasons, such as keeping track of income, might also benefit from bar graphs and pie charts.
Reading and analysing graphs and charts is a useful skill because they are frequently encountered in the real world, and even used in advertisements occasionally. When given to potential investors before they decide to invest in a firm, these graphs and charts can be valuable.
Expenses
A wife considers how she spends her husband’s money on her children and grandchildren. She wishes to save more money and is considering various options. She keeps track of her spending with a finance programme on her smartphone, which displays it as a pie chart.
Practical Applications of bar graphs and pie charts
The most obvious similarity between bar graphs and pie charts is the graphical portrayal of their information. Both take the form of a rectangular chart with bars or slices, respectively, and the data is conveyed by the height or length of each section.
Bar diagrams and pie charts are used in various day-to-day activities. Some ways in which it can be used are:
- Pie charts are commonly used in business to visualise data
- The use of bar graphs to depict how trends have evolved through time is rather popular. It may be used to compute the average rainfall for a region by displaying the average rainfall as a bar graph over a period of time
- Pie charts may help with even the most basic daily tasks, such as keeping track of your monthly spending by displaying each expense as a pie chart
- Using bar graphs and pie charts, medical experts can keep track of a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital signs
Conclusion
Bar and pie charts are both used for a variety of purposes. The chart type you choose will largely depend on your intended use. Each has its strengths and weaknesses; the key is to understand when to use which one!
If you are looking for a way to compare values among multiple categories, then a pie chart is the way. Since you can only see one category at a time, it’s easy to compare and see how each group compares to another. If you compare values within one category, a bar chart will be your best bet. Bar charts allow you to easily compare values within one category while looking at the data as an overall picture.
