Which chart is used to display the distribution of a continuous variable and has bars that touch each other?

Which chart is used to display the distribution of a continuous variable and has bars that touch each other?

• A. Histograms
• B. Bar charts
• C. Pie charts
• D. Line charts

Answer: (A)

Histograms are used to display the distribution of a continuous variable. They divide the data into adjacent intervals (bins) along the horizontal axis, and the height of each bar shows how many observations fall into that interval (or the density). The bars touch because the intervals are consecutive, reflecting the continuous nature of the data—there’s no gap between possible values. This setup makes the overall shape of the distribution easy to see, including skewness, modality, and where values cluster. Bar charts, in contrast, compare separate categories and typically have gaps between bars. Pie charts show proportions of parts of a whole, not a distribution across values. Line charts show trends across ordered points, such as time. So the correct chart for a continuous distribution with touching bars is the histogram.

Histograms are used to display the distribution of a continuous variable. They divide the data into adjacent intervals (bins) along the horizontal axis, and the height of each bar shows how many observations fall into that interval (or the density). The bars touch because the intervals are consecutive, reflecting the continuous nature of the data—there’s no gap between possible values. This setup makes the overall shape of the distribution easy to see, including skewness, modality, and where values cluster.

Bar charts, in contrast, compare separate categories and typically have gaps between bars. Pie charts show proportions of parts of a whole, not a distribution across values. Line charts show trends across ordered points, such as time. So the correct chart for a continuous distribution with touching bars is the histogram.