Correlation
This unit from the Continuing Mathematics Project is about the relationship between two quantities (correlation). If the two quantities are height of father and height of son, then we often want to know the extent to which 'tall fathers have tall sons'. Two quantities may be correlated quite strongly while another two quantities may be correlated quite weakly.
In this unit students will learn how to assess the extent to which two things are correlated. They will be able to use a mathematical formula for deriving a single figure that represents how strong the connection is between two quantities.
More specifically the objectives for this unit are that students will:
(a) be able to calculate Spearman's rank correlation coefficient from suitable data;
(b) be able to recognise and distinguish between positive, negative and zero correlation;
(c) understand that a significant correlation between two variables does not necessarily imply a direct causal relationship between the variables.
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