would be graphed with 11 class intervals since 10 is the closest integer to Log2(1000). We prefer the Rice rule, which is to set the number of intervals to twice the cube root of the number of observations. In the case of 1000 observations, the Rice rule yields 20 intervals instead of the 11 recommended by Sturges' rule. For the psychology test example used above, Sturges’ rule recommends 10 intervals while the Rice rule recommends 17. In the end, we compromised and chose 13 intervals for Figure 1 to create a histogram that seemed clearest. The best advice is to experiment with different choices of width, and to choose a histogram according to how well it communicates the shape of the distribution.
To provide experience in constructing histograms, we have developed an interactive demonstration (external link; Java required). The demonstration reveals the consequences of different choices of bin width and of lower boundary for the first interval.
