Now that we have a precise technique for finding the line of best fit, we still do not

know how well our line of best fit really fits our data. We can fit a least squares
regression line to any bivariate data, even if the two variables do not show a linear
relationship. If the fit is not good, our assumption of the a and b values in y = a + bx
might be incorrect. Next, we will learn of a quantitative measure to determine how
well our line really fits our data.

9.3

Correlation

EMCJS

The linear correlation coefficient, r, is a measure which tells us the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables. The correlation coefficient r [1; 1].
When r = 1, there is perfect negative correlation, when r = 0, there is no correlation
and when r = 1 there is perfect positive correlation.
y

Positive, strong
r 0,9
y

Positive, weak
r 0,4

Negative, fairly strong

r 0,7

Positive, fairly strong

r 0,7

Negative, weak
r 0,4

No correlation
r=0

The linear correlation coefficient r can be calculated using the formula r = b

x
y

where b is the gradient of the least squares regression line,

x is the standard deviation of the x-values and
y is the standard deviation of the y-values.
This is known as the Pearsons product moment correlation coefficient. It is much
easier to do on a calculator where you simply follow the procedure to calculate the
regression equation, and go on to find r.

Chapter 9. Statistics

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