Which of the following would not be a valid way to summarize or visualize a categorical variable?

• A. A pie chart
• B. A histogram
• C. A bar chart
• D. A frequency table

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand what a categorical variable is. A categorical variable represents data sorted into categories or groups, such as colors, types, or labels, rather than numerical values.
2. Step 2: Review common methods to summarize or visualize categorical data. These include frequency tables (which list counts for each category), bar charts (which display the counts or proportions of categories as bars), and pie charts (which show the proportion of each category as slices of a circle).
3. Step 3: Understand what a histogram is. A histogram is used to visualize the distribution of numerical data by grouping data into bins or intervals and showing the frequency of data points in each bin.
4. Step 4: Compare the suitability of each method for categorical data. Since histograms require numerical intervals, they are not appropriate for categorical variables, which do not have a natural numeric order or intervals.
5. Step 5: Conclude that among the options given, a histogram would not be a valid way to summarize or visualize a categorical variable.