SOCR EduMaterials Activities CrossHair
Contents
CROSS HAIR
Background
Cross Hair Charts are mostly used in finance and the stock market. It involves XY-points since every point represents a specific value from the independent variable. The line connecting all the points in the data is continuous as every point is independent of each other, in other words, one point does not affect another by graphing the data. Similarly in real life, a day in the stock market should not affect the outcome of the next day, but the economy of the nation will put an affect of the stock market.
References: Examples, Wikipedia
Goals
- To show how to use SOCR Cross Hair Charts
- Enforcing the understanding and purpose of Hair Charts
- Provide simple and easy examples
Description
Go to the SOCR Charts and select Miscellaneous from the items located on the left, then select Cross Hair. Click on the Miscellaneous folder and then on CrossHairDemo. In the Demo1 box plot, we can see side-by-side box plots of two categories for each of three series. These demonstration data can be viewed by clicking on DATA. Clicking on MAPPING you can choose the variables. Clicking on SHOW ALL the applet will present the graph, the data, and the mapping environment. Let’s clear this data set (click on CLEAR) so that we can enter our own data. After you click on CLEAR button, click on the DATA tab to enter data into the spreadsheet:
The image above is very similar to that of a stock market where time is the horizontal variable and value is the vertical value.
Note that the line connecting all points is continuous and that it is rarely or almost never obtaining negative values. It always increases and decreases in value over time.
Examples & Exercises
- Exercise 1: Look for a Cross Hair Chart under Finances and Business in the newspaper or Internet. Analyze what the chart is displaying. Is there a pattern to the Cross Hair Chart? Is every day dependent on the previous day?
- Exercise 2: Research the peak temperature for each day during the last month. Use the SOCR Cross Hair Chart to plot the information. Are there any patterns? Can you make any assumptions based off this illustration?
Data Type and Format
By clicking Data between the Graph and Mapping button, it allows users to input or vary the values of the data set. For Cross Hair Charts, the two variables needed are the specific date or time interval and the corresponding dependent value. The image below demonstrates this as the independent variable is time and the dependent variable is the specific value:
Applications
One of the most persuasive elements when proposing data and literature to others is a well-designed chart presentation.
Investors may use the Cross Hair application to present the growth of market over a specific time period.
Doctors and nurses may also use the Cross Hair application to present a patient’s blood level or heart rate over a period of time.
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