9-2 Correlation 511

2. Guns and Murder Rate Using data collected from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms, the number of registered automatic weapons and the murder
rate (in murders per 100,000 people) was obtained for each of eight randomly se-
lected states. STATDISK was used to find that the value of the linear correlation coef-
ficient is r 5 0.885.
a. Is there a significant linear correlation between the number of registered automatic
weapons and the murder rate? Explain.
b. What proportion of the variation in the murder rate can be explained by the linear
relationship between the murder rate and the number of registered automatic
weapons?

Stats
Explore
3. Stocks and Super Bowl Data Set 25 in Appendix B includes pairs of data for the
Dow-Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) high value and the total number of points
scored in the Super Bowl for 21 different years. Excel was used to find that the value
of the linear correlation coefficient is r 5 20.133.
a. Is there a significant linear correlation between DJIA high value and Super Bowl
value this indicates that the correlation relatively low
points? Explain. Since the
is
r -0.133
=

b. What proportion of the variation in Super Bowl points can be explained by the
variation in the high value of the DJIA? They are inversely proportional c- r )

Stats
4. Car Sales and Sunspots Data Set 25 in Appendix B includes pairs of data for the
Explore

sunspot number and the number of U.S. car sales for 21 different years. A TI-83 Plus
calculator was used to find that the value of the linear correlation coefficient is
r 5 20.284.
a. Is there a significant linear correlation between the sunspot number and the num-
ber of U.S. car sales? Explain.
b. What proportion of the variation in the number of U.S. car sales can be explained
by the variation in the sunspot number?
Testing for a Linear Correlation. In Exercises 5 and 6, use a scatterplot and the linear
correlation coefficient r to determine whether there is a correlation between the two vari-
ables.
5. x 0 1 2 3 4 6. x 1 2 2 5 6
y 4 1 0 1 4 y 2 5 4 15 15

7. Effects of an Outlier Refer to the accompanying Minitab-generated scatterplot.

of
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4 •

3
weak correlation
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continued
r: 41101-(10/110) =
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512 CHAPTER 9 Correlation and Regression

a. Examine the pattern of all 10 points and subjectively determine whether there ap-
pears to be a correlation between x and y.
b. After identifying the 10 pairs of coordinates corresponding to the 10 points, find
the value of the correlation coefficient r and determine whether there is a signifi-
cant linear correlation.
c. Now remove the point with coordinates (10, 10) and repeat parts (a) and (b).
d. What do you conclude about the possible effect from a single pair of values?

Testing for a Linear Correlation. In Exercises 8–14, construct a scatterplot, find the
value of the linear correlation coefficient r and use a significance level of a 5 0.05 to de-
termine whether there is a significant linear correlation between the two variables. Save
your work because the same data sets will be used in the next section.
8. Fires and Acres Burned Listed below are the numbers of fires (in thousands) and the
acres that were burned (in millions) in 11 western states in each year of the last
decade (based on data from USA Today). Is there a correlation? The data were listed
under a headline of “Loggers seize on fires to argue for more cutting.” Do the data
support the argument that as loggers remove more trees, the risk of fire decreases be-
cause the forests are less dense?
Fires 73 69 58 48 84 62 57 45 70 63 48
Acres burned 6.2 4.2 1.9 2.7 5.0 1.6 3.0 1.6 1.5 2.0 3.7
9. Buying a TV Audience The New York Post published the annual salaries (in millions)
and the number of viewers (in millions), with results given below for Oprah Winfrey,
David Letterman, Jay Leno, Kelsey Grammer, Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, James
Gandolfini, and Susan Lucci, repsectively. Is there a correlation between salary and
Ed : 188.2 Ey :X number of viewers? Which of the listed stars has the lowest cost per viewer? Highest
r= -0.1183 cost per viewer?
↓
nrrdati Salary 100 14 14 35.2 12 7 5 1
{highest10.4 {
"
wear lowest
Viewers 7 4.4 5.9 1.6 9.6 8.9 4.2
$ / viewer 14.10
3- It 2.77 22 1.15 0,73 0,56 0.24

10. Supermodel Heights and Weights Listed below are heights (in inches) and weights
(in pounds) for supermodels Niki Taylor, Nadia Avermann, Claudia Schiffer, Elle
MacPherson, Christy Turlington, Bridget Hall, Kate Moss, Valerie Mazza, and Kristy
Hume. Is there a correlation between height and weight? If there is a correlation, does
it mean that there is a correlation between height and weight of all adult women?
Height (in.) 71 70.5 71 72 70 70 66.5 70 71
Weight (lb) 125 119 128 128 119 127 105 123 115
11. Blood Pressure Measurements Fourteen different second-year medical students took
blood pressure measurements of the same patient and the results are listed below (data
provided by Marc Triola, MD). Is there a correlation between systolic and diastolic
values? Apart from correlation, is there some other method that might be used to ad-
dress an important issue suggested by the data?
Systolic 138 130 135 140 120 125 120 130 130 144 143 140 130 150
Diastolic 82 91 100 100 80 90 80 80 80 98 105 85 70 100
12. Temperatures and Marathons In “The Effects of Temperature on Marathon Runner’s
Performance” by David Martin and John Buoncristiani (Chance, Vol. 12, No. 4), high

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