Utilities The table lists average monthly temperatures and electricity costs for a Texas home in 2008. The table displays the values rounded to the nearest whole number. Make a scatter plot. How would you describe the correlation?
Month | Average Temp. (°F) | Electricity Bill ($) |
---|---|---|
January | 61 | 150 |
February | 58 | 139 |
March | 67 | 172 |
April | 75 | 205 |
May | 79 | 170 |
June | 83 | 234 |
July | 84 | 255 |
August | 85 | 245 |
September | 81 | 210 |
October | 76 | 183 |
November | 65 | 132 |
December | 58 | 110 |
Which variable is the independent variable?
Temperature does not depend on the electric bill, so temperature is the independent variable.
Step 2 Describe the correlation.
As the temperature increases, the electricity cost also increases. The points are relatively tightly clustered around a line. There is a strong positive correlation between temperature and electricity cost.
Number of Hours Online | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.75 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4.5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Test score | 100 | 94 | 98 | 88 | 92 | 89 | 75 | 70 | 78 | 72 | 57 |
A trend line is a line that approximates the relationship between the variables, or data sets, of a scatter plot. You can use a trend line to make predictions from the data. In a previous lesson you learned how to use two points to write the equation of a line to model a real-world problem. You can use this method to write the equation of a trend line.