Student Activity Packet

Activity #6: People Use Synthetics: Reading Charts and Graphs

Description

After examining a chart and a graph showing nylon use, you will answer questions about the information presented and explore the usefulness of graphs and charts.

Consumption of Fibers

What To Do

Click on the icon below to view the graph. Use it to answer the questions below.

NOTE: The graph makers use the term "noncellulosic" (in other words, not made from natural material) for fibers we have been calling synthetic. Cellulosic fibers, like rayon, are created in a laboratory from such natural materials as cotton and wood. Remember that the formulas for cellulosic and noncellulosic (synthetic) fibers are created in a laboratory and that some people call them "man-made" even if some of the scientists producing them were women.

DEFINITIONS:

Noncellulosic: synthetic, made in a laboratory
Cellulosic: made in a laboratory from natural materials
Natural: from animals and plants; may be carded, spun, dyed, and treated, but the basic fiber comes from a living thing

1. In what decade (ten years) did the consumption of noncellulosic fibers rise the most? Why?

2. When did the consumption of fibers made in a laboratory exceed the consumption of natural fibers?

3. In what year did the consumption of noncellulosic fibers exceed the consumption of cellulosic fibers?

4. What other questions would this graph help you answer?

5. What questions can you think of that the graph can't answer?

6. Translate data on this graph into another graphic form -- a bar graph for instance. Or make a bar graph of the clothing you are wearing today. Most of it contains several fibers. Make a bar graph of each piece of clothing showing the percentage of each fiber.

7. Write a paragraph describing the information displayed on this graph. What kinds of information can you explain better in words; what kind of information is best explained by a graph.

What To Do

Use the chart below to think about when, how, and why women came to prefer nylon stockings to other kinds. Answer the following questions using the chart:

1. In what year did women first report liking nylon stockings? Before women wore nylon stockings, of what materials were stockings made?

2. Why are the years 1942 through 1945 omitted from the table?

3. In what year did the preference for silk stockings drop sharply? Why do you think that drop occurred?

4. In what year did the most women prefer stockings made of rayon? Why?

5. Would you say it took a long or a short time for nylon stockings to become popular? Why do think that was?

6. Why do the numbers on this chart appear as percentages? Why is it useful to arrange numbers in chart form?

7. What can you learn from charts that you can't learn if you just had the information in story form? For some of the questions above you needed to understand the historical context of the developments noted in the chart. What information can't you learn from the chart?

8. Arrange the data in this chart as a graph such as the one in Exercise A. Describe the information on the chart in a paragraph.