Time in years that businesses stayed in operation

Use the top slider to explain how jittering (random vertical displacement of crosses) helps to separate dense groups of crosses and therefore describes density better. The Redo jittering button changes the random displacement of crosses.

Mention that the least amount of jittering that separates the crosses is best — moving the slider about half-way for this data set.

The bottom slider changes the display into a stacked dot plot. The slider initially moves the crosses horizontally into classes, then moves them vertically into stacks.

Mention that stacked dot plots are usually better than jittered ones for data display.

A researcher is interested in how long small businesses stay in operation. As part of the study, 120 businesses that closed down during the previous year were investigated. The last registered director of each company was contacted and asked about how long it had been in business. (The information was obtained from local government sources if nobody from the company could be contacted.)