Introduction to Graphs:
Use Excel to Make a Scatter Plot
Excel is a powerful tool for storing data and making graphs. The following video demonstrates one way to make a scatter plot in Excel. A scatter plot is a graph that just plots the data points. It doesn’t connect them with a line.
Video Source (05:26 mins) | Transcript
The basic steps to make a scatter plot in Excel:
- Highlight data you want to plot.
- Go to the “Insert” tab.
- Find the “Charts” section.
- Click on the scatter plot icon.
- Edit ranges, axis titles, chart title, and anything else you want to adjust.
Additional Resources
- Khan Academy: Constructing a Scatter Plot (02:31 mins, Transcript)
Practice Problems
- The following table summarizes data on the number of hours that students spent studying and the scores that they earned on their exams.
| Hours Studied | Exam Score |
|---|---|
|
7.5 |
68 |
|
9.5 |
92 |
|
6.75 |
79 |
|
1.75 |
36 |
|
6 |
72 |
|
9 |
95 |
|
7.5 |
86 |
|
7 |
95 |
|
8.5 |
73 |
|
0.75 |
48 |
Use Excel to create a scatter plot of these data, where the time spent studying is on the x-axis (the horizontal axis) and the test score is on the y-axis (the vertical axis).
