pAIrmatic Lessons
UNIT 2Two-way tablesLesson 1 of 11 Two-Way Tables

Two-Way Tables

8.SP.4Grade 8Statistics & Probability20 practice questions

A two-way table counts answers to two questions at once. Percents of a row or a column show if the answers are linked.

SiblingNo siblingTotal
Pet14?25
No pet20??
Total??60

What you'll be able to do

The big idea

Two questions at once. Rows show the answer to one question. Columns show the answer to the other.

Totals. Each row adds to its row total. Each column adds to its column total. Both add to the grand total.

Fill a blank. Find a row or column with only one blank. Subtract what you know from its total.

Row percent. Divide a cell by its row total. It answers 'of the grade 8 students, how many …?'

Column percent. Divide a cell by its column total. It answers 'of the walkers, how many …?'

Pick the total. The words after 'of the' tell you which total to use.

Is there a link? Compare row percents. If they are far apart, the answers are linked. If they are close, they are not.

Counts can fool you. A bigger group has bigger counts. Compare percents, not counts.

Words you need

Two-way table
A table that sorts answers to two questions into rows and columns.
Row total
The sum of a row.
Column total
The sum of a column.
Relative frequency
A count out of a total, often as a percent.
Row percent
A cell divided by its row total.
Column percent
A cell divided by its column total.
Association
A link between two answers: one group answers differently from the other.

Which total do I use?

The question saysDivide by
Of the grade 8 studentsThe grade 8 row total
Of the walkersThe walk column total
Of all studentsThe grand total

Worked examples

Example 1

60 students: 25 have a pet. 14 of the pet owners have a sibling. 20 students with no pet have a sibling. Make the table.

  1. Pet row: 25 − 14 = 11 have no sibling.
  2. No pet row: 60 − 25 = 35 students. 35 − 20 = 15 have no sibling.
  3. Columns: 14 + 20 = 34 have a sibling. 11 + 15 = 26 don't.

Answer: Pet, no sibling: 11. No pet, no sibling: 15. No pet total: 35. Sibling total: 34. No sibling total: 26

SiblingNo siblingTotal
Pet14?25
No pet20??
Total??60

Example 2

In that table, what percent of pet owners have a sibling? What percent of students with no pet do?

  1. Pet owners: 14 ÷ 25 = 0.56, so 56%.
  2. No pet: 20 ÷ 35 ≈ 0.571, so about 57%.

Answer: 56% of pet owners. About 57% of students with no pet

SiblingNo sibling
Pet1411
No pet2015

Example 3

Do the pet table's row percents show an association?

  1. The row percents are 56% and 57%.
  2. They are almost the same.
  3. So having a pet and having a sibling show no association here.

Answer: No. The row percents are the same or close

SiblingNo sibling
Pet1411
No pet2015

Common mistakes

Dividing by the grand total. 'Of the grade 8 students' means divide by the grade 8 total.

Mixing up row and column. 'Of the walkers' uses the walk column total.

Comparing counts. Groups can differ in size. Compare percents.

Reading 'most' as a rate. Most hurt riders can wear helmets just because most riders do.

Practice: 20 questions

20 of 20 are word problems. For a word problem, sketch it first and mark what you know.

Tier 1 Foundations Use the rule directly

  1. The table shows 100 students. Sport: instrument 18, no instrument 42. No sport: instrument 22, no instrument 18. How many play an instrument? What fraction play both? Word problem
    InstrumentNo instrumentTotal
    Sport184260
    No sport221840
    Total4060100
  2. The table shows how 100 students get to school, with four cells blank. Grade 7: bus 34, total 55. Grade 8: walk 16. Bus total: 63. Fill in the blanks. Word problem
    BusWalkTotal
    Grade 734?55
    Grade 8?16?
    Total63?100
  3. The table shows how 100 students get to school. Grade 7: bus 34, walk 21, total 55. Grade 8: bus 29, walk 16, total 45. Totals: bus 63, walk 37. What percent of grade 8 students take the bus? Round to the nearest percent. Word problem
    BusWalkTotal
    Grade 7342155
    Grade 8291645
    Total6337100
  4. The table shows how 100 students get to school. Grade 7: bus 34, walk 21, total 55. Grade 8: bus 29, walk 16, total 45. Totals: bus 63, walk 37. What percent of walkers are in grade 7? Round to the nearest percent. Word problem
    BusWalkTotal
    Grade 7342155
    Grade 8291645
    Total6337100
  5. The table shows how 100 students get to school. Grade 7: bus 34, walk 21, total 55. Grade 8: bus 29, walk 16, total 45. Totals: bus 63, walk 37. Ezra says 16% of grade 8 students walk. His reason: 16 of all 100 students do. Find his mistake. Word problem
    BusWalkTotal
    Grade 7342155
    Grade 8291645
    Total6337100

Tier 2 Intermediate One more step to think through

  1. 80 campers: 35 can swim. 28 of the swimmers are over 12. 15 of the non-swimmers are over 12. Make a two-way table with totals. Word problem
  2. The table shows 100 students. Sport: instrument 18, no instrument 42. No sport: instrument 22, no instrument 18. Is there an association between sport and instrument? Word problem
    InstrumentNo instrumentTotal
    Sport184260
    No sport221840
    Total4060100
  3. The table shows art club members. Grade 7: in the club 12, not 48, total 60. Grade 8: in the club 18, not 22, total 40. What percent of grade 8 are in the club? What percent of the club are in grade 8? Word problem
    In the clubNot in itTotal
    Grade 7124860
    Grade 8182240
    Total3070100
  4. 40 of 80 grade 8 students like the new lunch. 30 of 50 grade 7 students like it. Bo says grade 8 likes it more, because 40 is more than 30. Find his mistake. Word problem
  5. 48 students eat breakfast. 12 of them feel tired by noon. 32 skip breakfast. 8 of them feel tired. Is there an association? Word problem

Tier 3 Advanced Several steps - find the hidden structure

  1. A survey asks 200 people about jazz. 40% are adults. 75% of the adults like jazz. 30% of the kids like jazz. How many people like jazz? Word problem
  2. Grade 6: 30 bus, 20 walk, 10 car. Grade 7: 24 bus, 30 walk, 6 car. Grade 8: 18 bus, 44 walk, 18 car. Which grade walks most often? Use row percents. Word problem
    BusWalkCarTotal
    Grade 630201060
    Grade 72430660
    Grade 818441880
    Total729434200
  3. Club A: 30 of 50 members who practice win, and 10 of 50 who don't. Club B: 26 of 50 who practice win, and 24 of 50 who don't. Which club shows the stronger association? Word problem
    Club A
    WinLose
    Practice3020
    No practice1040
    Club B
    WinLose
    Practice2624
    No practice2426
  4. 200 riders wore helmets, and 14 were hurt. 50 riders did not, and 11 were hurt. Cal says helmets don't help, because most hurt riders wore helmets. Find his mistake. Word problem
  5. Dog owners: 36 adults and 24 kids. Cat owners: 18 adults and 22 kids. Write each row as percents. Round to the nearest percent. Word problem
    AdultsKidsTotal
    Dog owners362460
    Cat owners182240
    Total5446100

Tier 4 Challenge Stretch problems, some above grade level

  1. A table has row totals 30 and 70 and column totals 40 and 60. The top-left cell is x. For which x is there no association? Word problem
    Column 1Column 2Total
    Row 1x?30
    Row 2??70
    Total4060100
  2. 60% of 40 boys like a song. 80% of 60 girls like it. Pia says 85% of all 100 students like it. Find her mistake. Word problem
  3. 50 people own a cat. 30 of them are kids. Two percents match: kids who own a cat, and cat owners who are kids. How many kids were asked? Word problem
  4. A table gives percents of all students. Music and art: 15%. Music, no art: 45%. No music, art: p%. Neither: 25%. Find p. What percent of art students also take music? Word problem
    ArtNo art
    Music15%45%
    No music?25%
    Total??
  5. Of 200 emails, 30% are spam. A filter flags 90% of the spam and 5% of the other emails. What percent of flagged emails are spam? Round to the nearest percent. Word problem Above grade level

Answers

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