Researchers Studying the Relationship Between the Number of Fat Grams

question 44

Essay

Researchers studying the relationship between the number of fat grams and the net weight in ounces of a fun size package of peanut M & M's believe that the deterministic component of the relationship is a straight line. A scatterplot shows that even though the general trend is linear, the points do not fall exactly on a straight line. Describe two factors that might account for the random component of this regression model.

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Definitions:

Correlation Coefficient

A measure that determines the degree to which two variables' movements are associated, ranging from -1 (perfect negative correlation) to +1 (perfect positive correlation).

Prediction Interval

An estimate of an interval in which future observations will fall, with a certain degree of confidence, based on a predictive model.

Linear Regression

A mathematical approach that models how a dependent variable changes based on one or several independent variables, by adapting a linear equation to the data collected.

Mean Value

The average of a set of numbers, calculated by dividing the sum of these numbers by the count of numbers in the set.