lesson app 3.3 if i eat more chocolate, will i win a nobel prize?\nmost people love chocolate for its great…

lesson app 3.3 if i eat more chocolate, will i win a nobel prize?\nmost people love chocolate for its great taste. but does it also make you smarter? a scatterplot like this one recently appeared in the new england journal of medicine. each point on the scatterplot represents a country. the explanatory variable is the chocolate consumption per resident. the response variable is the number of nobel laureates per 10 million residents of that country.\n1. interpret the correlation of r = 0.791.\n2. if people in the united states started eating more chocolate, can we expect more nobel prizes to be awarded to residents of the united states? explain your reasoning.\ncheck out www.tlvieira.com to see some spurious correlations.

lesson app 3.3 if i eat more chocolate, will i win a nobel prize?\nmost people love chocolate for its great taste. but does it also make you smarter? a scatterplot like this one recently appeared in the new england journal of medicine. each point on the scatterplot represents a country. the explanatory variable is the chocolate consumption per resident. the response variable is the number of nobel laureates per 10 million residents of that country.\n1. interpret the correlation of r = 0.791.\n2. if people in the united states started eating more chocolate, can we expect more nobel prizes to be awarded to residents of the united states? explain your reasoning.\ncheck out www.tlvieira.com to see some spurious correlations.

Answer

Explanation:

Step1: Understand correlation value

A correlation coefficient (r = 0.791) is positive and relatively high. A positive (r) value indicates a positive linear - relationship. Values close to 1 suggest a strong linear association.

Step2: Interpret the relationship

This means that as chocolate consumption per resident (in kg/yr) increases, the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million residents also tends to increase in a somewhat linear fashion.

Step3: Analyze causation for second question

Just because there is a correlation does not mean there is causation. There could be other confounding variables or it could be a spurious correlation. For example, countries with higher economic development might have both more chocolate - eating habits and better educational and research environments that lead to more Nobel laureates.

Answer:

  1. There is a strong positive linear relationship between chocolate consumption per resident and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million residents. That is, as chocolate consumption increases, the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million residents also tends to increase.
  2. No, we cannot expect more Nobel Prizes to be awarded to residents of the United States just because people start eating more chocolate. A correlation between chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel laureates does not imply causation. There could be other factors such as economic development, quality of education, and research infrastructure that contribute to both chocolate - eating habits and the production of Nobel laureates.