Suppose a bar graph displays the number of students in different majors at a university. Which of the following inferences could be correctly drawn from this graph?

• A. The most popular major among students is the one with the tallest bar.
• B. The graph provides information about the median income of graduates from each major.
• C. The graph shows the average GPA of students in each major.
• D. The graph indicates the age distribution of students in each major.

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand what a bar graph represents. A bar graph displays categorical data with rectangular bars where the length or height of each bar is proportional to the value or frequency of the category it represents.
2. Step 2: Identify what the bars in this specific graph represent. Since the graph shows the number of students in different majors, each bar's height corresponds to the count of students in that major.
3. Step 3: Recognize that the tallest bar indicates the category with the highest frequency. Therefore, the major with the tallest bar has the most students enrolled, making it the most popular major.
4. Step 4: Note that the graph does not provide information about other statistics such as median income, average GPA, or age distribution, because these require different types of data and visualizations (e.g., box plots, histograms, or scatter plots).
5. Step 5: Conclude that the only correct inference from this bar graph is about the popularity of majors based on student count, specifically that the most popular major is the one with the tallest bar.