Which scatterplot is labeled correctly if it is meant to show the relationship between the number of minutes that gym members spend running on a treadmill and the number of calories that they burn?

Question

A graph titled Members versus Calories Burned has Members on the x-axis and calories burned on the y-axis. Points plotted are (10, 200), (20, 300), (30, 400), (35, 425), (40, 650), (50, 700).
A graph titled Minutes versus Calories Burned has Minutes on the x-axis and calories burned on the y-axis. Points plotted are (10, 200), (20, 300), (30, 400), (35, 425), (40, 650), (50, 700).
A graph titled Calories Burned versus Minutes has Calories burned on the x-axis and minutes on the y-axis. Points plotted are (160, 11), (200, 15), (300, 20), (376, 25), (390, 30), (400, 35).
A graph titled Calories Burned versus Members has Calories burned on the x-axis and members on the y-axis. Points plotted are (160, 11), (200, 15), (300, 20), (376, 25), (390, 30), (400, 35).

Answer 1

The correct scatterplot that represents the relationship between the number of minutes that gym members spend running on a treadmill and the number of calories that they burn should have minutes on the x-axis and calories burned on the y-axis.

Thus, the correctly labeled graph is:

A graph titled Minutes versus Calories Burned has Minutes on the x-axis and calories burned on the y-axis. Points plotted are (10, 200), (20, 300), (30, 400), (35, 425), (40, 650), (50, 700).

This graph appropriately shows the relationship we're interested in: minutes spent running as the independent variable (x-axis) and calories burned as the dependent variable (y-axis).