Investigation of Correlation, Causation, Prediction, Confidence and Errors in Statistics

Question 2 

The correlation of depicted in the scatter shows that there is a strong positive linear relationship between the price of the diamond and its weight. Using the formula, =CORREL(B2:B309,F2:F309), the correlation coefficient is found to be 0.944727.

Question 3 

The best-fit line or trend line is a straight line that can best represent the relationship between two variables in a scatter plot. I would apply the best fit line on this data set by choosing the area with most concentration and dividing it into two with the best fit line so that both areas are properly represented by the best fit line. The cautions that should be kept in mind though is that when a regression equation is drawn from the line in the form of , the results for the y value from an estimated x, should as close as possible to what is on the scatter plot.

Question 4 

Yes, there is a causal relation between diamond weight and price. The reason for this is because an increase in the diamond weight causes a relative increase in the price of the diamond.

Question 5 

My response would be that lung cancer does not have a strong correlational and causal relationship with either radon or asbestos as many people are exposed to them but they do not suffer from lung cancer. However, smoking has strong linear correlational relationship with lung cancer diagnosis and therefore the more the person smokes, the more the person risks getting lung cancer.

Question 6 

In my area of interest, I would need to research if there is correlation between carcinogenic food or drinks with all types of cancer. The cancer that strikes my interest is throat cancer. I would do research to find out whether there are other variables or factors that have a causal relationship with throat cancer.

References

Robinson, J., & EC, H. A. (2011). A short primer on the Correlation coefficient of Vague sets.  International Journal of Fuzzy System Applications (IJFSA) ,  1 (2), 55-69. 

Casey, S. A. (2015). Examining student conceptions of covariation: A focus on the line of best fit.  Journal of Statistics Education ,  23 (1). 

Li, L. F., Chan, R. L. Y., Lu, L., Shen, J., Zhang, L., Wu, W. K. K., ... & Cho, C. H. (2014). Cigarette smoking and gastrointestinal diseases: the causal relationship and underlying molecular mechanisms.  International journal of molecular medicine ,  34 (2), 372-380.