Maylorn Thivaharan

Spearmans Rank Correlation

This formula is used for Spearmans Rank, its used to work out correlation. The closer the result is to 1, the stronger the positive correlation. The closer the result is to -1, the stronger the negative correlation. When the result is close to 0, however, this shows that there is little or no correlation between the two sets of data. The number of pieces of data being used is represented by, n, and the difference between the ranks of the two sets of data are represented by, d.

Hypotheses:
Null hypothesis (N0) = There is no correlation between percentage cover of clovers and soil pH. Hypothesis (N1) = there is a significant correlation between the percentage coverage off white clovers and the pH levels off the soil.

Results:
Average percentage of clovers on field (cm3) 70.5 70.5 77 78 80.5 86.5 90.5 = 0.50 Average pH levels of the soil on the field 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 7.0 Rank 1 Rank 2 d

1.5 1.5 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0.5 0.5 0 0 0 0 0

Calculations:
Rs = 1 [(6x 0.5)/343-7)] Rs = 1- [(3/336)] Rs = 0.99 The answer calculated is 0.99, this is incredibly close to 1 which shows that there is a very strong positive correlation that has occurred between the percentage cover of the white clovers and the pH levels off the soil. The result shows that, as the percentage cover of white clovers increase, as does the pH of the soil.