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Making line plots with fractional data

The video is all about creating line plots to represent data sets. It emphasizes the importance of using fractions of a unit (like 1/2, 1/4, 1/8) to accurately depict measurements. It also shows how line plots can help solve problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions. Created by Sal Khan.

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Video transcript

- [Instructor] We are told that for four days you record the number of hours you sleep each night. You round each time to the nearest 1/4 of an hour. And then here on this table they tell us that our different days, they tell us how many hours we slept. Day one we slept seven and 1/4 hours, day two seven and 3/4, day three seven and 3/4, day four eight 1/2 hours. Then it says, create a line plot that shows all of the measurements on the number line below. And it says click above the tick marks to add dots, click on tick marks to remove dots. So we can see if I click right over here, a tick mark shows up. And if I click again, it gets removed. So let's see, day one you slept seven and 1/4 hours. So, that's one day where you sleep seven and 1/4. So, seven and 1/4 is right between seven and seven and 1/2. So that's right over there. There we go. On day two you sleep seven and 3/4 hours. So, that's 1/4, 2/4, 3/4. So that's day two. Day three you also sleep seven and 3/4 hours, so that's another day that you sleep seven and 3/4 hours. And then on day four you sleep eight and 1/2 hours, which is right over there. And so, here we go. We have created a line plot that shows all of the measurements. On one day, day one it was, I slept seven and 1/4 hours. There were two days where I slept seven and 3/4 hours, and there was one day where I slept eight and 1/2 hours. Let's do another example. Amy ran many miles during September. She recorded how long it took her to run each mile, rounded to the nearest 1/4 of a minute on the table below. We can see it right over here, actually let me move my window a little bit so you can see everything. And then it says, create a line plot that shows all of the measurements on the number line below. All right, so three times she was able to run a mile in eight and 3/4 minutes. So, there are three that were eight and 3/4. Notice, this is, if we look at the space between eight and nine, there is one, two, three, four equal intervals. And so, 3/4 is going to be three of those. One, two, three. She ran a mile in eight and 3/4 minutes three times. That's what we saw from that table. So, that's three times she did that. She ran a mile in nine and 1/4 minutes two times. So nine and 1/4. That is 1/4 of the way to 10, we can see 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4. So nine and 1/4 she did two times. So that's going to be one, two. And then let's see, nine and 1/2 she did four times. Nine and 1/2 is here, so one, two, three, four. And then eight and 1/2 she did one time. So that's eight and 1/2 right over there. And then she ran a mile in nine minutes five times. Nine minutes right over here. One, two, three, four, five. And we're done.