How can you tell the difference between a strong linear association and a weak linear association?

Question

The data points will be clustered more tightly around the trend line if there is a weak linear association and less tightly if there is a strong one.
The data points will be clustered more tightly around the trend line if there is a strong or weak linear association.
The data points will be clustered less tightly around the trend line if there is a strong or weak linear association.
The data points will be clustered more tightly around the trend line if there is a strong linear association and less tightly if there is a weak one.

Answer 1

The correct statement is:

The data points will be clustered more tightly around the trend line if there is a strong linear association and less tightly if there is a weak one.

In a strong linear association, the data points are close to the trend line, indicating that changes in one variable are closely related to changes in the other variable. In contrast, a weak linear association shows that the data points are more spread out from the trend line, indicating a less consistent relationship between the two variables.