20 Points, due Mar 6

This assignment to find data on-line. I'm hoping you'll take some time to look around a bit while you're at it. Go to the government data website www.data.gov. The objective is to find or create a graph, chart or table of some data you find interesting from the statistics available on the site. The site links all sorts financial, industrial and social statistics. Your graphic should compare different values of the statistic over any reasonble variation, such:

• Changes over time. For instance, how the price or production of something over time.
• Differences between different places: states, cities, counties, regions, or whatever. For instance, rate of some type of crime in different cities, or salaries in some industry in different states.

The objective is to create a PDF document. There are several possibilties:

• You might just be able to find one that you can download.
• Some of the web sites will produce a graph for you.
• Places might provide you with data that can be loaded into a spreadsheet or other software. Usually, your browser will know if a particular format can be used by a program on your computer and open it for you. (Spreadsheets can usually use .csv, as well as their own native extensions, such as .xlsx for MS Excel.) The spreadsheet program then makes a fine table, or can produce charts and graphs.

You'll need to get your graphic into PDF format to submit it. The web site may simply provide a PDF download. If you have a it in a browser or spreadsheet, you will want to export it to PDF. There may be an entry for “export to PDF”, or you might need to do it by printing. In that case, start to print the page, but choose “print to file” or “print to pdf” instead of a physical printer. (Some browsers will want to produce data in a format called xps instead of pdf. This will also work.)

When you get through all that, send your PDF file here.