3 ms·
The problem is that the four quantile groups contain equal numbers of items, but are not represented by equal areas, even if we replace the whiskers with a bar
by kazinator 2y ago
The problem is that the four quantile groups contain equal numbers of items, but are not represented by equal areas, even if we replace the whiskers with a bar of the same width as the box.
The bottom whisker contains 25% of the data, yet is just a thin line, which can furthermore be arbitrarily short.
It really is a dumb visual presentation.
The only way to use it is to recover the five parameters from it, and then stop looking at it.
For that purpose, a QR code would be just as good, if not better. You'd need a device with a camera to get the parameters (but "everyone" has that now), and when you're looking at it with your bare eyes, it doesn't tell you any visual lie.
- seanhunter 2y ago> The only way to use it is to recover the five parameters from it, and then stop looking at it. ...which is its intended use case since Tukey invented it as a way of visualising the "5 number summary". I think part of his criteria were that it should be easy to make by hand which is clearly no longer a consideration so there are plenty of reasons to just do something else most of the time these days.