Anscombe's Quartet
Anscombe's quartet comprises four datasets that have nearly identical simple statistical properties,
yet appear very different when graphed. Each dataset consists of eleven (x,y) points. They were
constructed in 1973 by the statistician Francis Anscombe to demonstrate both the importance of
graphing data before analyzing it and the effect of outliers on statistical properties.
Click on the different Plot checkboxes. What do you notice? What do you wonder about?
For which plot does the line-of-best-fit appear to have the "best fit?"