TRANSFORMATIONS WORKSHEET

A group of students intend to determine whether there is a relationship between the number of students
playing downball at lunchtime, and the temperature.

It is believed that the number of students playing downball can be predicted from the maximum daily
temperature.

The following data is recorded over two weeks.

Number of 15 19 28 30 27 31 12 25 33
students
playing
Maximum 24.0 24.3 27.5 29.0 26.2 28.9 23.1 25.4 30.4
temperatur
e for that
day (oC)

1) Complete the following statement:

“____89.14____% of the variation in _number of students playing downball_ can be explained by

variation in _____maximum temperature_____.”

2) Is the relationship between number of students playing and maximum temperature linear? Give a
reason to support your answer.

No – the residual plot has a clear pattern.

3) It is decided that a transformation should be applied to this data. Write down three appropriate
transformations, in terms of the variables number of students and temperature.

1
log(max temperature) (no. of students playing)2
max temperature

4) Apply each of these transformations, and determine r 2 for each of them.

i. Transformation: log(max temperature) r 2 = 0.91

1
ii. Transformation: r 2 = 0.93
max temperature

iii. Transformation: (no. of students playing)2 r 2 = 0.94

 5) Based on these calculations, which transformations is most successful?

(no. of students playing)2

6) Determine the least squares regression equation for this transformation. Make sure to write the
equation in terms of the variables.

y = –2731.8 + 127.3x  number of students2 = –2731.8 + 127.3 x maximum temperature

7) Use this equation to predict the number of students playing downball when the maximum
temperature is:
a. 25 degrees

number of students2 = -2731.8 + 127.3 x 25  number of students = 21

b. 35 degrees

number of students2 = -2731.8 + 127.3 x 35  number of students = 42

8) Explain why the prediction in 7b. is unlikely to be reliable.

Temperature of 35 degrees is outside the range of the original data, so this prediction involves extrapolation.

9) The regression equation is used to predict the number of students playing downball on a day where
the maximum temperature is 30.4 degrees. What is the residual value for this prediction?

predicted value  number of students2 = –2731.8 + 127.3 x 30.4

number of students = 33.74 students

actual value  = 33 students

residual = actual – predicted

= 33 – 33.74
= – 0.74