Solution and Answer Guide
DATA VISUALIZATION EXPLORING AND EXPLAINING WITH DATA 2ND EDITION COPYRIGHT 2025 BY
J EFFREY D. CAMM, J AMES J. COCHRAN, MICHAEL J. FRY, J EFFREY W. OHLMANN
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
End of Section Problem Solutions ............................................................................................................. 1
END OF SECTION PROBLEM SOLUTIONS
1. Types of Analytics. Indicate which type of analytics (descriptive, predictive, or prescriptive analytics) each of
the following represents. LO 1
a. a data dashboard
b. a model that finds the production schedule that minimizes overtime
c. a model that forecasts sales for the next quarter
d. a bar chart
e. a model that allocates your financial investments to achieve your financial goal
Solution:
a. descriptive
b. prescriptive
c. predictive
d. descriptive
e. prescriptive
2. Transportation Planning. An analytics professional is asked to plan the shipment of a product for the next
quarter. She employs the following process:
Step 1. For each of the 12 distribution centers, she plots the quarterly demand for the product over the last
three years.
Step 2. Based on the plot for each distribution center, she develops a forecasting model to forecast demand
for next quarter for each distribution center.
Step 3. She takes the forecast for next quarter for each distribution center and inputs those forecasts, along
with the capacities of the company’s four factories and transportation rates from each factory to each
distribution center, into an optimization model. The optimization model suggests a shipping plan that
minimizes the cost of how to satisfy the forecasted demand from the company’s four different
factories to the distribution centers.
Describe the type of analytics being utilized in each of the three steps outlined
above. LO 1
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 1
accessible website, in whole or in part.
, Solution:
Step 1. Data visualization is descriptive analytics.
Step 2. A forecasting model is predictive analytics.
Step 3. An optimization mode is prescriptive analytics.
3. Wall Street Journal Subscriber Characteristics. A Wall Street Journal subscriber
survey asked a series of questions about subscriber characteristics and interests. State whether each of the
following questions provides categorical or quantitative data. LO 2
a. What is your age?
b. Are you male or female?
c. When did you first start reading the WSJ? High school, college, early career, midcareer, late career, or
retirement?
d. How long have you been in your present job or position?
e. What type of vehicle are you considering for your next purchase? Nine response categories for this
question include sedan, sports car, SUV, minivan, and so on.
Solution:
a. quantitative
b. categorical
c. categorical
d. quantitative
e. categorial
4. Comparing Smartwatches. Consumer Reports provides product evaluations for its subscribers. The following
table shows data from Consumer Reports for five smartwatches on the following characteristics:
Overall Score—a score awarded for a variety of performance factors
Price—the retail price
Recommended—does Consumer Reports recommend purchasing the smartwatch based on performance and
strengths?
Best Buy—if Consumer Reports recommends purchasing the smartwatch, does it also consider it a ―best buy‖
based on a blend of performance and value?
For each of the four pieces of data, indicate whether the data are quantitative or categorical and whether the data
are cross-sectional or time series. LO 2
Make Overall Score Recommended Best Buy Price
Apple Watch Series 5 84 Yes No $395
Fitbit Versa 2 78 Yes Yes $200
Garmin Venu 77 Yes No $350
Fitbit Versa Lite 65 No No $100
Solution:
Overall Score and Price are quantitative. Recommended and Best Buy are categorical (both are yes or no). All
of these data are cross-sectional.
5. House Price and Square Footage. Suppose we want to better understand the relationship between house price
and square footage of the house, and we have collected house price and square footage for 75 houses in a
particular neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, from the Zillow website on January 3, 2021. LO 2, 3
a. Are these data quantitative or categorical?
b. Are these data cross-sectional or times series?
c. Which of the following type of chart would provide the best display of these data? Explain your answer.
i. Bar chart
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 2
accessible website, in whole or in part.
, ii. Column chart
iii. Scatter chart
Solution:
a. House price and square footage are quantitative.
b. The data were collected at a single point in time, so these data are cross-sectional.
c. iii Bar charts and column charts are better for categories. Here we do not have categories, we have pairs
of numerical data for each of 75 houses (price, square footage). Therefore, a scatter chart with square
footage as the horizontal axis and price as the vertical axis would be appropriate.
6. Netflix Subscribers. The following chart displays the total number of Netflix subscribers from 2010 to 2019.
LO 1, 2, 3
a. Are these data quantitative or categorical?
b. Are these data cross-sectional or time series?
c. What type of chart is this?
Solution:
a. Number of Netflix subscribers is quantitative.
b. Since these data are collected at several points in time, they are time series data.
c. This is a column chart.
7. U.S. Netflix Subscribers. Refer to the previous problem. Suppose that in addition to the total number of Netflix
subscribers, we have the number of those subscribers by year for the years 2010–2019 who live in the United
States. Our message is to emphasize how much of the growth is coming from the United States. Which of the
following types of charts would best display the data? Explain your answer. LO 2, 3
i. Bar chart
ii. Clustered column chart
iii. Stacked column chart
iv. Stock chart
Solution:
A stacked column chart is most appropriate here as it will show the total number of subscribers (height of the
column) but also the same for U.S. subscribers (denoted by color within a column).
8. How Data Scientists Spend Their Day. The Wall Street Journal reported the results of a survey of data
scientists. The survey asked the data scientists how they spend their time. The following chart shows the
percentage of respondents who answered less than five hours per week or at least five hours per week for the
amount of time they spend on exploring data and on presenting analyses. LO 2, 3, 4
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 3
accessible website, in whole or in part.
, a. Are these data quantitative or categorical?
b. Are these data cross-sectional or time series?
c. What type of chart is this?
d. What conclusions can you make based on this chart?
Solution:
a. These data are categorical: exploring data and presenting analysis; less than or equal to four hours per week
or at least five hours per week.
b. These data are cross sectional since the survey was administered to a person at one point in time.
c. The chart is a clustered bar chart (also known as a side-by-side bar chart).
d. Data scientists spend more time exploring data than presenting results.
9. Industries in the Dow Jones Industrial Index. Refer to the data on the Dow Jones Industrial Index given in
Table 1.3. The following chart displays the number of companies in each industry that make up this index. LO
3
a. What type of chart is this?
b. Which industry has the highest number of companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Index?
Solution:
a. This is a bar chart.
b. Financial Services and Technology each have five companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Index.
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 4
accessible website, in whole or in part.
DATA VISUALIZATION EXPLORING AND EXPLAINING WITH DATA 2ND EDITION COPYRIGHT 2025 BY
J EFFREY D. CAMM, J AMES J. COCHRAN, MICHAEL J. FRY, J EFFREY W. OHLMANN
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
End of Section Problem Solutions ............................................................................................................. 1
END OF SECTION PROBLEM SOLUTIONS
1. Types of Analytics. Indicate which type of analytics (descriptive, predictive, or prescriptive analytics) each of
the following represents. LO 1
a. a data dashboard
b. a model that finds the production schedule that minimizes overtime
c. a model that forecasts sales for the next quarter
d. a bar chart
e. a model that allocates your financial investments to achieve your financial goal
Solution:
a. descriptive
b. prescriptive
c. predictive
d. descriptive
e. prescriptive
2. Transportation Planning. An analytics professional is asked to plan the shipment of a product for the next
quarter. She employs the following process:
Step 1. For each of the 12 distribution centers, she plots the quarterly demand for the product over the last
three years.
Step 2. Based on the plot for each distribution center, she develops a forecasting model to forecast demand
for next quarter for each distribution center.
Step 3. She takes the forecast for next quarter for each distribution center and inputs those forecasts, along
with the capacities of the company’s four factories and transportation rates from each factory to each
distribution center, into an optimization model. The optimization model suggests a shipping plan that
minimizes the cost of how to satisfy the forecasted demand from the company’s four different
factories to the distribution centers.
Describe the type of analytics being utilized in each of the three steps outlined
above. LO 1
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 1
accessible website, in whole or in part.
, Solution:
Step 1. Data visualization is descriptive analytics.
Step 2. A forecasting model is predictive analytics.
Step 3. An optimization mode is prescriptive analytics.
3. Wall Street Journal Subscriber Characteristics. A Wall Street Journal subscriber
survey asked a series of questions about subscriber characteristics and interests. State whether each of the
following questions provides categorical or quantitative data. LO 2
a. What is your age?
b. Are you male or female?
c. When did you first start reading the WSJ? High school, college, early career, midcareer, late career, or
retirement?
d. How long have you been in your present job or position?
e. What type of vehicle are you considering for your next purchase? Nine response categories for this
question include sedan, sports car, SUV, minivan, and so on.
Solution:
a. quantitative
b. categorical
c. categorical
d. quantitative
e. categorial
4. Comparing Smartwatches. Consumer Reports provides product evaluations for its subscribers. The following
table shows data from Consumer Reports for five smartwatches on the following characteristics:
Overall Score—a score awarded for a variety of performance factors
Price—the retail price
Recommended—does Consumer Reports recommend purchasing the smartwatch based on performance and
strengths?
Best Buy—if Consumer Reports recommends purchasing the smartwatch, does it also consider it a ―best buy‖
based on a blend of performance and value?
For each of the four pieces of data, indicate whether the data are quantitative or categorical and whether the data
are cross-sectional or time series. LO 2
Make Overall Score Recommended Best Buy Price
Apple Watch Series 5 84 Yes No $395
Fitbit Versa 2 78 Yes Yes $200
Garmin Venu 77 Yes No $350
Fitbit Versa Lite 65 No No $100
Solution:
Overall Score and Price are quantitative. Recommended and Best Buy are categorical (both are yes or no). All
of these data are cross-sectional.
5. House Price and Square Footage. Suppose we want to better understand the relationship between house price
and square footage of the house, and we have collected house price and square footage for 75 houses in a
particular neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, from the Zillow website on January 3, 2021. LO 2, 3
a. Are these data quantitative or categorical?
b. Are these data cross-sectional or times series?
c. Which of the following type of chart would provide the best display of these data? Explain your answer.
i. Bar chart
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 2
accessible website, in whole or in part.
, ii. Column chart
iii. Scatter chart
Solution:
a. House price and square footage are quantitative.
b. The data were collected at a single point in time, so these data are cross-sectional.
c. iii Bar charts and column charts are better for categories. Here we do not have categories, we have pairs
of numerical data for each of 75 houses (price, square footage). Therefore, a scatter chart with square
footage as the horizontal axis and price as the vertical axis would be appropriate.
6. Netflix Subscribers. The following chart displays the total number of Netflix subscribers from 2010 to 2019.
LO 1, 2, 3
a. Are these data quantitative or categorical?
b. Are these data cross-sectional or time series?
c. What type of chart is this?
Solution:
a. Number of Netflix subscribers is quantitative.
b. Since these data are collected at several points in time, they are time series data.
c. This is a column chart.
7. U.S. Netflix Subscribers. Refer to the previous problem. Suppose that in addition to the total number of Netflix
subscribers, we have the number of those subscribers by year for the years 2010–2019 who live in the United
States. Our message is to emphasize how much of the growth is coming from the United States. Which of the
following types of charts would best display the data? Explain your answer. LO 2, 3
i. Bar chart
ii. Clustered column chart
iii. Stacked column chart
iv. Stock chart
Solution:
A stacked column chart is most appropriate here as it will show the total number of subscribers (height of the
column) but also the same for U.S. subscribers (denoted by color within a column).
8. How Data Scientists Spend Their Day. The Wall Street Journal reported the results of a survey of data
scientists. The survey asked the data scientists how they spend their time. The following chart shows the
percentage of respondents who answered less than five hours per week or at least five hours per week for the
amount of time they spend on exploring data and on presenting analyses. LO 2, 3, 4
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 3
accessible website, in whole or in part.
, a. Are these data quantitative or categorical?
b. Are these data cross-sectional or time series?
c. What type of chart is this?
d. What conclusions can you make based on this chart?
Solution:
a. These data are categorical: exploring data and presenting analysis; less than or equal to four hours per week
or at least five hours per week.
b. These data are cross sectional since the survey was administered to a person at one point in time.
c. The chart is a clustered bar chart (also known as a side-by-side bar chart).
d. Data scientists spend more time exploring data than presenting results.
9. Industries in the Dow Jones Industrial Index. Refer to the data on the Dow Jones Industrial Index given in
Table 1.3. The following chart displays the number of companies in each industry that make up this index. LO
3
a. What type of chart is this?
b. Which industry has the highest number of companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Index?
Solution:
a. This is a bar chart.
b. Financial Services and Technology each have five companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Index.
© 2025 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly 4
accessible website, in whole or in part.
