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Course: Statistics and probability > Unit 5
Lesson 1: Introduction to scatterplots- Constructing scatter plots
- Making appropriate scatter plots
- Positive and negative linear associations from scatter plots
- Describing trends in scatter plots
- Positive and negative associations in scatterplots
- Outliers in scatter plots
- Clusters in scatter plots
- Describing scatterplots (form, direction, strength, outliers)
- Scatterplots and correlation review
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Describing scatterplots (form, direction, strength, outliers)
When we look at scatterplot, we should be able to describe the association we see between the variables.
A quick description of the association in a scatterplot should always include a description of the form, direction, and strength of the association, along with the presence of any outliers.
Form: Is the association linear or nonlinear?
Direction: Is the association positive or negative?
Strength: Does the association appear to be strong, moderately strong, or weak?
Outliers: Do there appear to be any data points that are unusually far away from the general pattern?
It's also important to include the context of the two variables in the description of these features. Here's an example.
Example
Let's describe this scatterplot, which shows the relationship between the age of drivers and the number of car accidents per drivers in the year .
Here's a possible description that mentions the form, direction, strength, and the presence of outliers—and mentions the context of the two variables:
"This scatterplot shows a strong, negative, linear association between age of drivers and number of accidents. There don't appear to be any outliers in the data."
Notice that the description mentions the form (linear), the direction (negative), the strength (strong), and the lack of outliers. It also mentions the context of the two variables in question (age of drivers and number of accidents).
Practice
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