What is the purpose of a stem and leaf plot?

The purpose of a stem and leaf plot is to organize a large set of numbers into a compact form while preserving the original data. This type of plot allows you to see the distribution of data points quickly. The "stem" represents the leading digit(s), while the "leaf" represents the trailing digit. For example, in the number 43, '4' would be the stem and '3' would be the leaf. This arrangement keeps the data in a way that allows for easy reading and interpretation.

While other types of data presentations might visually illustrate data or show frequency distributions, a stem and leaf plot specifically focuses on compactly presenting numerical data in such a way that you can still retrieve individual values. This makes it particularly useful in statistics for analyzing data sets that contain numerous entries, allowing one not only to see the data set's shape and range but also to extract specific values as needed.