Asked by don

A line of best fit is calculated for a dataset with correlation coefficient 0.69.

Later, a point if removed from the dataset and the line of best fit is recalculated. The new correlation coefficient is 0.98.

Was the point that got removed an outlier of the dataset? Explain your reasoning.

Math

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Yes. The correlation jumped from 0.69 to 0.98 when that one point was removed, so that point was influencing (and weakening) the linear relationship.

Reason: the correlation coefficient measures the strength of the linear association. A single point that lies far from the overall trend (an outlier or high-leverage/influential point) can substantially reduce r; removing it restores a much stronger linear fit (r ≈ 0.98). If the removed point were consistent with the pattern, removing it would not change r so dramatically.