Chapter 10, Part 1

Re-expressing Data: Get it Straight!

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Do Now Pick 2, Copy Down, and Explain Using Complete Sentences

1) What is the third factor that relates ice cream sales and drownings? 2) What additional factors contribute to the relationship between lower speed limits and fewer deaths? 3) What is the relationship between the increased population of Louisiana and the decrease of the state's landmass? 4) What is a variable called that is hidden in the background? 5) What example is given regarding lurking variables? Why can't correlation be used to test this association? 6) What type of table allows us to see how a lurking variable can influence the association between two variables? 7) What is the phenomenon that reverses the direction of association by a lurking variable called? http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=149
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AIM AND HOMEWORK

How do we re-express data in order to get a straight line? Check Homework #22 with group: Read Chapter 9, # 25-33ODD (Discuss important questions as a group and add points from your discussion.) Homework #23: Read Chapter 10, # 1-15 ODD, 12

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Straight to the Point

We cannot use a linear model unless the relationship between the two variables is linear. Often re-expression can save the day, straightening bent relationships so that we can fit and use a simple linear model. Two simple ways to re-express data are with logarithms and reciprocals. Re-expressions can be seen in everyday life everybody does it.

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Straight to the Point (cont.)

The relationship between fuel efficiency (in miles per gallon) and weight (in pounds) for late model cars looks fairly linear at first:

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Straight to the Point (cont.)

A look at the residuals plot shows a problem:

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Straight to the Point (cont.)

We can re-express fuel efficiency as gallons per hundred miles (a reciprocal) and eliminate the bend in the original scatterplot:

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Straight to the Point (cont.)

A look at the residuals plot for the new model seems more reasonable:

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Goals of Re-expression

Goal 1: Make the distribution of a variable (as seen in its histogram, for example) more symmetric.

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Goals of Re-expression (cont.)

Goal 2: Make the spread of several groups (as seen in side-by-side boxplots) more alike, even if their centers differ.

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Goals of Re-expression (cont.)

Goal 3: Make the form of a scatterplot more nearly linear.

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Goals of Re-expression (cont.)

Goal 4: Make the scatter in a scatterplot spread out evenly rather than thickening at one end. This can be seen in the two scatterplots we just saw with Goal 3:

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Summary

What did we learn today?

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