NCERT Solutions Ganita Prakash Chapter 4 Figure it Out — Tally Marks and Frequency
Book page 76 & 77 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Complete the table to help Shri Nilesh to purchase the correct numbers of sweets: a. How many students chose jalebi? b. Barfi was chosen by ____ students? c. How many students chose gujiya? d. Rasgulla was chosen by ____ students? e. How many students chose gulab jamun?
Answer
Count each bundle of five first, then the loose marks.
6 + 9 + 13 + 3 + 7 = 38 — so there are 38 students in Shri Nilesh's class, and he must buy 38 sweets in all.
The same frequency table as a bar graph. Gujiya (13) is the class favourite; barfi (3) is the least liked.
Why tally marks are written in fives: our eyes cannot count a long row of single strokes without mistakes. Bundles of five can be counted 5, 10, 15, … at a glance — the same reason we count notes and coins in bundles.
Q2.
Is the above table sufficient to distribute each type of sweet to the correct student? Explain. If it is not sufficient, what is the alternative?
Answer
No, the table is not sufficient.
The table tells Shri Nilesh how many students chose each sweet, but not which student chose which sweet. It says 13 gujiyas are needed — it does not say whose 13 they are. The names were thrown away while making the table.
The alternative: keep a second, name-wise record — a list of the students under each sweet.
Sweet
Names of the students who chose it
Count
Jalebi
Aarav, Meena, Sahil, …
6
Gulab jamun
Fatima, Ravi, Neha, …
9
Gujiya
Kabir, Sita, Amrit, …
13
Another simple way is to write the sweet next to each name in the attendance register, exactly as Navya's first list did for games.
The big idea: a frequency table is a summary. Summarising always throws some detail away. So before you summarise, ask what question you want to answer — “how many to buy?” needs only counts, but “who gets what?” needs the names too.