Pie Charts 2

I said last time that pie charts are useful rough indicators of what is happening at a glance. However if you have to draw a pie chart then you have to be quite accurate in your drawing.

If you take a survey, for example you ask 30 people where they went on holiday last year, then you may discover that 20 stayed in England, 7 went to the rest of Europe, and 3 went out of Europe. You are asked to set this information into a pie chart. How do you do it? Well you know that there are 360 degrees in a circle, and you have asked 30 people. That means that every person's answer accounts for 360/30 degrees of the circle which equals 12 degrees.

So the people that went on holiday account for 12 x 20 = 240 degree (well on the way to three-quarters of the pie. The people that went to Europe account for 12 x 7 = 94 degrees (just over a quarter). The people that went out of Europe account for 12 x 3 = 36 degrees (just a slice of the cake)

That sums it up