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The Importance of Accurate Data Representation Avo

Explore how misleading graphs and statistics can distort data interpretation. This activity reveals how axis manipulation and small sample sizes—like in average blood sugar reports—can misrepresent true trends.

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    P L T W Biomedical Science Activity 2.1.2 Student Response Sheet Part I: Answers Example 1: Prosthetic, Inc. and Orthotics and Prosthetics had almost identical profit increases between the years 1998 and 2009. The y-axis on Orthotics and Prosthetics' graph has been altered to have a larger range than the range used for the y-axis on Prosthetic, Inc.'s graph. If the same range was used for both graphs, they would look as follows: Example 2: ABC.com presented that the average blood sugar level before meals for Americans is 142 mg.'dL but did not specify how the average was calculated. What they did not share was that the mean, or arithmetic average, was calculated from a sample size of only four people. Of these four people, all of the blood sugar levels (before meals) were in normal ranges and one person had a blood sugar level of 240 mg/dL, causing the entire group's average to be skewed. Therefore, 75% of the blood sugar levels of the people in the study were actually far below this average. A better average to use would have been the median blood sugar level (i.e.. the blood sugar level in the middle of the data range). The website should have reported how many people were included in the study. Four people do not accurately represent the entire population. Example 3: The data presented was biased as it did not present all of the pertinent information. The number of motorcycles on the road is significantly less than the number of passenger cars on the road, so simply using the number of vehicles involved in fatal crashes is not enough to illustrate which vehicle is the safest. The following two graphs, which show the rate of vehicles involved in fatal crashes per 100 million miles travelled and the rate of vehicles involved in fatal crashes per 100,000 registered vehicles, represent the data more accurately. Using all of the data as a whole, passenger cars are actually involved in fewer fatal crashes than the other vehicles.

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    Vehicles Involved in Fatal Crashes Per 100 Million Miles Travelled in USA, 1994 - 2008 Vehicle involvement Rate in Fatal Crashes Per 100,000 Registered Vehicles tn USA, 1994 - 2008 '*1 ft. P"J w Iintf W t I n.1 Pan II: Ways in Which Statistics Can Be Misused Biased Study Design Note: A sample is defined as a representative part of a population whose properties are studied to gain information about the whole.

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