How To Read Bar Graphs With Error Bars
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bars? Say that you were looking at writing scores broken down by race and ses. You might want to graph the mean and confidence interval for each group using a bar chart with error bars as illustrated below. This FAQ shows how how to interpret error bars you can make a graph like this, building it up step by step. First, lets get the
Standard Error Bars Excel
data file we will be using. use http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/notes/hsb2, clear Now, let's use the collapse command to make the mean and standard deviation by race and
How To Calculate Error Bars
ses. collapse (mean) meanwrite= write (sd) sdwrite=write (count) n=write, by(race ses) Now, let's make the upper and lower values of the confidence interval. generate hiwrite = meanwrite + invttail(n-1,0.025)*(sdwrite / sqrt(n)) generate lowrite = meanwrite - invttail(n-1,0.025)*(sdwrite / sqrt(n)) Now we are
Overlapping Error Bars
ready to make a bar graph of the data The graph bar command makes a pretty good bar graph. graph bar meanwrite, over(race) over(ses) We can make the graph look a bit prettier by adding the asyvars option as shown below. graph bar meanwrite, over(race) over(ses) asyvars But, this graph does not have the error bars in it. Unfortunately, as nice as the graph bar command is, it does not permit error bars. However, we can make a twoway graph that has error bars how to draw error bars as shown below. Unfortunately, this graph is not as attractive as the graph from graph bar. graph twoway (bar meanwrite race) (rcap hiwrite lowrite race), by(ses) So, we have a conundrum. The graph bar command will make a lovely bar graph, but will not support error bars. The twoway bar command makes lovely error bars, but it does not resemble the nice graph that we liked from the graph bar command. However, we can finesse the twoway bar command to make a graph that resembles the graph bar command and then combine that with error bars. Here is a step by step process.First, we will make a variable sesrace that will be a single variable that contains the ses and race information. Note how sesrace has a gap between the levels of ses (at 5 and 10). generate sesrace = race if ses == 1 replace sesrace = race+5 if ses == 2 replace sesrace = race+10 if ses == 3 sort sesrace list sesrace ses race, sepby(ses) +---------------------------------+ | sesrace ses race | |---------------------------------| 1. | 1 low hispanic | 2. | 2 low asian | 3. | 3 low african-amer | 4. | 4 low white | |---------------------------------| 5. | 6 middle hispanic | 6. | 7 middle asian | 7. | 8 middle african-amer | 8. | 9 middle white | |---------------------------------| 9. | 11 high hispanic | 10. | 12 high asian | 11. | 13 high african-amer | 12. | 14 high white | +-----------------------
Though no one of these measurements are likely to be more precise than any other, this group of values, it is hoped, will cluster about the true value you are trying to measure. This distribution of data values is often represented by showing a single data error bars standard deviation or standard error point, representing the mean value of the data, and error bars to represent the overall distribution of how to make error bars the data. Let's take, for example, the impact energy absorbed by a metal at various temperatures. In this case, the temperature of the metal is large error bars the independent variable being manipulated by the researcher and the amount of energy absorbed is the dependent variable being recorded. Because there is not perfect precision in recording this absorbed energy, five different metal bars are tested at each temperature level. http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/faq/barcap.htm The resulting data (and graph) might look like this: For clarity, the data for each level of the independent variable (temperature) has been plotted on the scatter plot in a different color and symbol. Notice the range of energy values recorded at each of the temperatures. At -195 degrees, the energy values (shown in blue diamonds) all hover around 0 joules. On the other hand, at both 0 and 20 degrees, the values range quite a bit. In fact, there are a number of https://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/res/gt/gt-stat-home.html measurements at 0 degrees (shown in purple squares) that are very close to measurements taken at 20 degrees (shown in light blue triangles). These ranges in values represent the uncertainty in our measurement. Can we say there is any difference in energy level at 0 and 20 degrees? One way to do this is to use the descriptive statistic, mean. The mean, or average, of a group of values describes a middle point, or central tendency, about which data points vary. Without going into detail, the mean is a way of summarizing a group of data and stating a best guess at what the true value of the dependent variable value is for that independent variable level. In this example, it would be a best guess at what the true energy level was for a given temperature. The above scatter plot can be transformed into a line graph showing the mean energy values: Note that instead of creating a graph using all of the raw data, now only the mean value is plotted for impact energy. The mean was calculated for each temperature by using the AVERAGE function in Excel. You use this function by typing =AVERAGE in the formula bar and then putting the range of cells containing the data you want the mean of within parentheses after the function name, like this: In this case, the values in cells B82 through B86 are averaged (the mean calculated) and the result placed in cell B87. Once y
Health Search databasePMCAll DatabasesAssemblyBioProjectBioSampleBioSystemsBooksClinVarCloneConserved DomainsdbGaPdbVarESTGeneGenomeGEO DataSetsGEO ProfilesGSSGTRHomoloGeneMedGenMeSHNCBI Web SiteNLM https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2064100/ CatalogNucleotideOMIMPMCPopSetProbeProteinProtein ClustersPubChem BioAssayPubChem CompoundPubChem SubstancePubMedPubMed HealthSNPSparcleSRAStructureTaxonomyToolKitToolKitAllToolKitBookToolKitBookghUniGeneSearch termSearch Advanced Journal list Help Journal ListJ Cell Biolv.177(1); 2007 Apr 9PMC2064100 J Cell Biol. 2007 Apr 9; 177(1): 7–11. doi: 10.1083/jcb.200611141PMCID: PMC2064100FeaturesError bars in experimental biologyGeoff Cumming,1 Fiona Fidler,1 and David L. Vaux21School of error bars Psychological Science and 2Department of Biochemistry, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3086Correspondence may also be addressed to Geoff Cumming (ua.ude.ebortal@gnimmuc.g) or Fiona Fidler (ua.ude.ebortal@reldif.f).Author information ► Copyright and License information ►Copyright © 2007, The Rockefeller University PressThis article has been cited how to read by other articles in PMC.AbstractError bars commonly appear in figures in publications, but experimental biologists are often unsure how they should be used and interpreted. In this article we illustrate some basic features of error bars and explain how they can help communicate data and assist correct interpretation. Error bars may show confidence intervals, standard errors, standard deviations, or other quantities. Different types of error bars give quite different information, and so figure legends must make clear what error bars represent. We suggest eight simple rules to assist with effective use and interpretation of error bars.What are error bars for?Journals that publish science—knowledge gained through repeated observation or experiment—don't just present new conclusions, they also present evidence so readers can verify that