Question

a pediatrician wants to determine the relation that may exist between a childs height and head circumference. she randomly selects 8 children from her practice, measures their height and head circumference, and obtains the data shown in the table. complete parts (a) through (e).

height (in.) head circumference (in.)
27.75 17.4
25.75 17.2
26.5 17.2
25.75 16.9
28 17.5
26.5 17.3
25.75 17.1
27 17.4

click here to see the table of critical values for correlation coefficient.

(a) if the pediatrician wants to use height to predict head circumference, determine which variable is the explanatory variable and which is the response variable.

the explanatory variable is height and the response variable is head circumference.

the explanatory variable is head circumference and the response variable is height.

Explanation:

In regression analysis, the explanatory variable (\(x\)) is the one used to predict the other variable. Here, height is used to predict head circumference. So, height is the explanatory variable and head circumference is the response variable (\(y\)).

Answer:

The explanatory variable is height and the response variable is head circumference.