What is a Q-Q Plot?
A Quantile-Quantile plot (Q-Q plot) is a graphical tool for assessing whether a dataset follows a particular theoretical distribution — most commonly the normal distribution. Points following the diagonal line indicate normality; systematic deviations suggest non-normality.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Q-Q plot tell me?
How many data points are needed?
Computation Method
- Quartiles are calculated using linear interpolation (method 7 from Hyndman & Fan, 1996), consistent with Python's NumPy and pandas defaults.
- Outlier detection uses the Tukey fences method: lower fence = Q1 − 1.5 × IQR, upper fence = Q3 + 1.5 × IQR.
- Chart scaling caps the display axis at the upper fence value so the visualization remains clear even when extreme outliers are present.