Suppose you are shown a bar chart displaying the number of students in different majors at a university. Which of these statements best describes the information presented by the graph?

• A. The graph summarizes qualitative data by showing the frequency of students in each category (major).
• B. The graph shows the relationship between two continuous variables.
• C. The graph presents the mean $\mu$ and standard deviation $\sigma$ of students' test scores.
• D. The graph displays quantitative data by showing the exact ages of all students.

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Identify the type of data represented in the bar chart. Since the chart shows the number of students in different majors, the data categories are majors, which are qualitative (categorical) variables.
2. Understand that a bar chart is typically used to display frequencies or counts of categories, which means it summarizes how many observations fall into each category.
3. Recognize that the graph does not show relationships between continuous variables, nor does it present measures like mean or standard deviation, which are numerical summaries of quantitative data.
4. Note that the graph does not display exact values for individual data points (such as ages), but rather aggregates counts for each category.
5. Conclude that the best description is that the graph summarizes qualitative data by showing the frequency of students in each category (major).