Analyzing and Exploration with Scatter Plots Reflection Questions

1) What type of correlation is displayed by the scatter plot that you created?
The scatter plot that I created is an example of positive correlation as the line of best fit is increasing as
the x-values increase.

2) What type of association is shown by the given data set?

The association shown in the scatterplot is a positive association. We know this because as the value of
one variable increases, in this case the money spent on advertising, so does the other.

3) Using the value for r that you found above describe the strength of the relationship
between the 2 variables.
Through using excel I was able to find that the value of R^2 was 0.957. This means that the R-value is
about 0.978. The closer the R-value is to +1 then the stronger the correlation between the two variables
so in this case there is an almost perfect strong positive correlation being shown.

4) What prediction can be made about the relationship between the amount of money spent
on advertising compared with the number of items sold based on the trendline shown above?
Based on my answer to question 3, the variables in this case have a strong positive correlation. In the
context of this problem that means that the company being described should spend more money on
advertising monthly if they want to sell a larger number of items.

5) Is the relationship between the given variables above an example of correlation or

causation? Explain your answer.
In this case we have already identified that there is a high level of correlation between the two
variables. However, given the context and what I know about buisness I would say that this is also an
example of causation. Because both variables are related to one another, and I already know that
advertising is often directly linked to product sales I can infer that the increase in the amount of money
spent on advertising in a particular month CAUSED an increase in the number of items sold.

6) Based on the lesson today reflect on 3 things that you have learned about scatter plots,
line of best fit, R-values, or the use of Excel.
Based on the work that I did today during class I was able to learn many important things when it comes
to scatter plots. The first is the fact that causation is not something that the graph can directly tell us.
Throughout this unit I had been confused on this and thought that like correlation it was something that
we can easily find but I now understand that causation is something that we infer from the connection
between the two variables. If the two variables do not have anything to do with one another there is
most likely no causation. The second is I now have a better understanding of how the R-value and
correlation are related. I thought that I needed to have a visual graph in order to detirmine the
correlation but now I know that the R-value tells me the correlation based on how close it is to a positive
or negative 1. Lastly, I learned how to create a graph using Excel. I have always found Excel intimidating
and never really used it because I didn’t know how but after watching the tutorial videos as a class and
then being given the opportunity to play around with the software on my own before starting the
assignment I now know an easy way to create graphs and see a visual representation of bivariable data
sets.