The table shows the attendance of a minor -legue baseball game for the first 8 games of the season.

Game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Attendance 8673 8903 9103 9091 9117 9134 9256 9573
What is the correlation coeffficient for the data?

The r-value is approximately
. The r-value tells me that the line
a good fit with the data. The data has a

correlation.

1 answer

To calculate the correlation coefficient \( r \) for the given data, we can use the formula for Pearson's correlation coefficient, which can be calculated using a statistical software, calculator, or by hand following specific steps.

Here's how you can find \( r \):

  1. Calculate the means of \( x \) and \( y \), where \( x \) is the game number (1 through 8) and \( y \) is the attendance.

  2. Calculate the deviations of each \( x \) and \( y \) value from their means.

  3. Calculate the covariance of \( x \) and \( y \) and the standard deviations of both \( x \) and \( y \).

  4. Use the Pearson correlation coefficient formula: \[ r = \frac{\text{cov}(x, y)}{s_x s_y} \] where \( s_x \) and \( s_y \) are the standard deviations of \( x \) and \( y \), respectively.

Let's perform these calculations:

  1. Data Summary:

    • \( x = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} \)
    • \( y = {8673, 8903, 9103, 9091, 9117, 9134, 9256, 9573} \)
  2. Means:

    • Mean of \( x \) (game numbers) = \( \frac{1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8}{8} = 4.5 \)
    • Mean of \( y \) (attendance) = \( \frac{8673+8903+9103+9091+9117+9134+9256+9573}{8} = 9112.875 \)
  3. Deviations:

    • \( x - \text{mean}(x) \) = { -3.5, -2.5, -1.5, -0.5, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 }
    • \( y - \text{mean}(y) \) = { -439.875, -209.875, -9.875, -21.875, 4.125, 21.125, 143.125, 460.125 }
  4. Products of Deviations:

    • Calculate \( (x - \text{mean}(x)) * (y - \text{mean}(y)) \) for each pair of deviations:
      • (-3.5)(-439.875) = 1549.5625
      • (-2.5)(-209.875) = 524.6875
      • (-1.5)(-9.875) = 14.8125
      • (-0.5)(-21.875) = 10.9375
      • (0.5)(4.125) = 2.0625
      • (1.5)(21.125) = 31.6875
      • (2.5)(143.125) = 357.8125
      • (3.5)(460.125) = 1610.4375

    Sum of products = 1549.5625 + 524.6875 + 14.8125 + 10.9375 + 2.0625 + 31.6875 + 357.8125 + 1610.4375 = 4100.375

  5. Calculating \( s_x \) and \( s_y \):

    • Variance \( s_x^2 = \frac{\sum (x - \bar{x})^2}{n-1} = \frac{(3.5^2 + 2.5^2 + 1.5^2 + 0.5^2 + 0.5^2 + 1.5^2 + 2.5^2 + 3.5^2)}{7} = \frac{35}{7} = 5 \Rightarrow s_x = \sqrt{5} \approx 2.236 \)
    • Variance \( s_y^2 = \frac{\sum (y - \bar{y})^2}{n-1} \) (calculate each squared deviation similar to \( x \)), sum them up, and divide by 7 to get \( s_y \).

    After calculating these values, \( s_y \approx 199.872 \).

  6. Calculating \( r \):

    • \( r = \frac{4100.375}{(2.236)(199.872)} \)

Performing this calculation yields an \( r \) value of approximately 0.986.

Summary:

  • The r-value is approximately 0.986.
  • The r-value tells me that the line is a very good fit with the data.
  • The data has a strong positive correlation.

If you need further assistance with the calculations or explanations, feel free to ask!