what is bins in histogram

1 year ago 37
Nature

In a histogram, data is grouped into "bins" or intervals of equal width. Each bin is represented by a bar whose height corresponds to the number of data points that fall within that bin. The number of bins and their boundaries are not inherent to the data itself, but rather a separate decision that must be made when constructing a histogram. The way bins are specified can have a major effect on how the histogram is interpreted. The number of bins should be chosen carefully to ensure that the distribution of data is represented accurately without being too rough or too noisy. There are different methods to choose the number of bins, such as the Rice criterion, which depends on the number of data points in the dataset. The width of each bin is calculated by dividing the range of the variable by the total number of bins. It is important to note that histograms are used for continuous data, while bar graphs are used for categorical data.