Stem and Leaf Diagrams Worksheets | Questions and Revision | MME

# Stem and Leaf Diagrams

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

## What you need to know

### Stem and Leaf Diagram

A stem and leaf diagram is a way of displaying a collection of numbers. The ‘stem’ consists of the first part of every number (usually the first digit/digits) and the ‘leaf’ consists of the latter part of every number (usually the last digit). In any stem-and-leaf diagram, there must be a key that explains how the diagram should be read and understood.

You will need to have a good understanding of mean, median, mode and range to help with this topic.

## Example 1: Using a Stem and Leaf Diagram

Ramona wanted to learn more about the ages of her colleagues. She collected the ages of all of them and recorded her results using a stem-and-leaf diagram.

a)Write down the mode.

b)Write down the median.

c) Calculate the range.

a) The mode means the number that appears most often. Here we can see that the number 2 appears three times in the ‘3’ row – more times than any other value appears, therefore the mode is 32.

b) The median is the middle value. A common method for finding the median is to cross out the smallest value, then the largest, then the 2nd smallest, then the 2nd largest, and so on until you only have 1 value left. This is shown in the diagram below.

therefore the median is 32.

c) The range is the largest value takeaway the smallest. Reading of the diagram, we see the smallest value is 19, whilst the largest is 55. So, we get

$\text{range }=55-19=36$

## Example 2: Drawing a Stem and Leaf Diagram

Scott measured the height of all the people in his choir. The values, in cm, are given below.

$154,\,\,180,\,\,176,\,\,153,\,\,162,\,\,165,\,\,154,\,\,186,$

$190,\,\,187,\,\,176,\,\,176,\,\,172,\,\,182,\,\,177,\,\,169$

Draw a stem-and-leaf diagram of Scott’s data.

To draw a stem-and-leaf we must first figure out what our key will be. The stem will be the first two digits, whilst the leaf will be the last digit. This means our stem will have to include: 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 as shown below.

At this point, it’s probably a good idea to rewrite your data to be in numerical order before committing it to the diagram.

$153,\,\,154,\,\,154,\,\,162,\,\,165,\,\,169,\,\,172,\,\,176,$

$176,\,\,176,\,\,177,\,\,180,\,\,182,\,\,186,\,\,187,\,\,190$

Now, we can fill in the ‘leaf’ values (the last digit of every value) alongside the correct ‘stem’ value, to complete the stem-and-leaf diagram. The result is shown below.

Note: one extra benefit of stem-and-lead diagrams is that if you tilt your head to the right, they seem to look a little like a bar chart, with each row of numbers forming a bar. This gives you a good visualisation of the data without having to draw any additional graphs.

### Example Questions

All of these values are 2-digit numbers, so the first digits will be in the ‘stem’ section, and the second digits will be in the ‘leaf’ section. Since the lowest number begins with a ‘1’ and the highest begins with a ‘4’, our stem and leaf diagram, including the key, should look like the below:

(Any value can be chosen as an example for the key.)

To ensure that you don’t inadvertently omit any of the values, it would be a good idea to write them out in order (check that your list contains the same number of values as in the question, so in this example, check that you have 12 values):

$14,\,\,19,\,\,22,\,\,24,\,\,29,\,\,32,\,\,35,\,\,35,\,\,36,\,\,38,\,\,41,\,\,47$

To complete the stem and leaf diagram itself, first of all look at all the values that start with 1 (14 and 19), and enter their last digits in the leaf section of the 1 stem (so you would write ‘4’ and ‘9’ in the leaf section). Then repeat this process values beginning with 2, then with values beginning with 3 etc.

Your completed stem and leaf diagram should look like the below:

a) The only number to appear more than once is the ‘2’ leaf on the ‘1’ part of the stem. Therefore, the mode is 12.

b) The largest value is 51 (stem of ‘5’ and leaf of ‘1’ ) and the smallest is 9 (stem of ‘0’ and leaf of ‘9’). So, the range is $51-9=42$.

c) All the journeys under 20 minutes are the ones that appear in the ‘0’ stem or the ‘1’ stem. From the diagram, we can see that there are 8 journeys in these two sections, and in total there are 15 times recorded. This means that 8 out of 15 journeys were under 20 minutes, which can be written as the following fraction:

$\dfrac{8}{15}$

To convert a fraction to a percentage, we need to divide the top of the fraction by the bottom and multiply by 100:

$\dfrac{8}{15}\times100 = 53.3\%$

a) The range is the difference between the weight of the heaviest calf and the weight of the lightest calf. The heaviest calf will be in the ‘14’ stem. There is only one calf in this stem and its leaf is 3, so the weight of the heaviest calf is 143 pounds. The lightest calf will be the calf with the lowest value in the ‘9’ stem, so the weight of the lightest calf is 93 pounds. Therefore the range of the calves’ weights is $143-93=50\text{ pounds}$.

b) The modal weight is the most frequently occurring weight. In the ‘12’ stem, we can see that there are 3 values of 1, more than any other in the stem and leaf diagram. A value of 1 in the ‘12’ stem represents a weight of 121 pounds.

c) The mean weight of the calves is the total weight divided by the total number of calves. By counting the number of digits in the leaf section, we can see that there are 24 calves in total. The sum of their weights can be calculated as follows:

$93+97+97+98+101+103+106+106+109+112+112+114+114+115+118+120+121+121+121+123+126+132+138+143=2740\text{ pounds}$

(Since there are a lot of numbers to add up, I would perform the above calculation twice to ensure you arrive at the same answer. It might even be safer to work out the subtotals for each stem section and then add up these subtotals.)

The mean weight of the calves can be calculated as follows:

$\dfrac{2740\text{ pounds}}{24\text{ calves}} = 114\text{ pounds}$

d) The mean weight of the 24 calves 114 pounds. Introducing another calf to the data set that is greater than 114 pounds will increase the mean weight of the calves.

a) The median is the middle value. By counting up the number of values in the leaf section, we can see that there is a total of 17 values. To work out which value gives us the median, we need to remember the following formula:

$\dfrac{n+1}{2}$ (where $n$ represents the total number of values)

Since there are 17 values in total, $n$ = 17, so:

$\dfrac{17+1}{2} = 9$

The median comes from the 9th value (do not make the mistake of thinking that the median is 9 points). Count the values in the leaf sections row by row until you reach the 9th value (so in the ‘0’ stem, 2 is value 1, 4 is value 2, 7 is value 3 and in the ‘1’ stem, 0 is value 4 etc.). If you have counted correctly, then the 9th has a stem of ‘1’ and a leaf of ‘9’, meaning that the median number of points scored is 19.

b) Jamal has played in 17 matches in total. In these matches, he has scored 10 points or less on 4 occasions (don’t forget to include the value 10). Therefore he has scored 10 points or less in 4 out of the 17 matches, which can be expressed as the following fraction:

$\dfrac{4}{17}$

c) In the 17 matches that Jamal plays, he scores between 20 and 35 points on 5 occasions. This can be expressed as the following fraction:

$\dfrac{5}{17}$

The question wants us to give the answer as a percentage rather than as a fraction. To convert a fraction to a percentage, divide the top by the bottom and multiply by 100:

$\dfrac{5}{17}\times 100 = 29\%$

d) First of all, we need to work the number of matches in which Jamal has scored over 25 points. Jamal has scored more than 25 points on 7 out of 17 occasions. Since the team always wins when Jamal scores over 25 points (and loses when he doesn’t), then the team wins 7 times out of 17. Therefore the probability of winning the next game can be expressed as the following fraction:

$\dfrac{7}{17}$

This fraction is the probability of the team winning the next game, but we are asked to give the answer as a decimal. To convert a fraction to a decimal, simply divide the top by the bottom:

$7\div17=0.4$

a) The modal score for Spanish is the most frequently occurring score for Spanish. In the stem of 5, there are 2 values of 7, more than other since there are no other duplicate scores for Spanish, so the modal score is 57.

b) The modal group for French is the group (not score) which has the highest number of values in it. Make sure to look at the values on the left of the stem column, and not the Spanish values which are to the right. In the French side of the stem and leaf diagram, there are 5 values listed in the 7 stem group. The modal group is therefore the 70s or the 70 – 79 group, since values that belong to this group must begin with a 7.

c) The range is the difference between the highest and the lowest value.

The highest score for French is 87 (stem of 8, leaf of 7) and the lowest is 42 (stem of 4, leaf of 2). Therefore the range for French is $87-42=35$.

The highest value for Spanish is 89 (stem of 8, leaf of 9) and the lowest is 32 (stem of 3, leaf of 2). Therefore the range for Spanish is $89-32=57$.

The question asks for the difference between the range for French and the French for Spanish which can be calculated as follows:

$57-35=22$

d) The median is the middle score. In order to work out which value will give us our median, we need to know how many values there are. There are 19 values for French and 19 values for Spanish. To work out the median, we need to remember the following short formula where $n$ represents the total number of values:

$\text{median}=\dfrac{n+1}{2}$

In this question the value of $n$ is 19, so the median value can be calculated as follows:

$\dfrac{19+1}{2}=10$

The median is not simply the number 10; it is what the 10th value represents (which will probably be different for French and Spanish).

For Spanish the first value is 32 (stem 3, leaf 2), the second 36 (stem 3, leaf 6), third 39 (stem 3, leaf 9), fourth 41 (stem 4, leaf 1) etc. Continuing, we will find the tenth value for Spanish which has a value of 60.

Finding the 10th value for French is a little bit harder due to the fact that this is a back-to-back stem and leaf diagram, so the values on the left of the stem (the French values) are in ascending order from right to left. The first value is 42 (stem 4, leaf 2), the second 46 (stem 4, leaf 6), third 47 (stem 4, leaf 7), fourth 49 (stem 4, leaf 9), fifth 51 (stem 5, leaf 1) etc. Continuing, we will find the tenth value for French which is 65.

The question asks by what percentage the French median score is greater or less than the Spanish median score, meaning we need to work out the difference between the median scores as a percentage of the median Spanish score.

The difference between the two median scores is 5, so we need to work out 5 as a percentage of the median Spanish score which is 60:

$\dfrac{5}{60}\times100=8\%$

Since the median French score is greater and not less than the Spanish score, the median French score is 8% greater than the median Spanish score.

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