IXL | Interpret stem-and-leaf plots

The librarian at the public library counted the number of books on each shelf.

Books per shelf
Stem	Leaf
1	1
2	4 7
3	0 7
4	3 4
5	4 8 8
6	1
7	3 4 6
8	5 9
9	0

How many shelves have at least 50 books?

shelves

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Learn with an example

question

For a science fair project, Paula tracked the temperature each day.

Daily temperatures (°C)
Stem	Leaf
0	1 3 9
1	3 5 7
2	0 1 4 5 7 8 9
3	3 6 8 8 8 8 9

What is the lowest temperature?

°C

key idea

In a stem-and-leaf plot, the stem tells the first part of the number and the leaf tells the last digit of the number.

solution

Daily temperatures (°C)
Stem	Leaf
0	1 3 9
1	3 5 7
2	0 1 4 5 7 8 9
3	3 6 8 8 8 8 9

Look at the first row of the stem-and-leaf plot. The first row has the lowest stem. The stem for the first row is 0.

Now find the lowest leaf in the first row. The lowest leaf is 1.

The lowest temperature has a stem of 0 and a leaf of 1. Write the stem first, then the leaf: 01.

The lowest temperature is 1°C.

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Teacher tools

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Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

NN.1Interpret line plots with whole numbers

Create stem-and-leaf plots

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