Math discussion

Is smoking related to lung cancer? Is the rate of crime related to weather? Human beings constantly seek to find relationships among variables. Correlation is an important statistical measure that describes how two variables are related.

Initial Post:

You live in New Jersey and last year you opened a food and drink stand on Wildwood Boardwalk. You are reviewing last year’s sales to prepare inventory for the coming months. You notice that the number of certain food or drink items sold seems to fluctuate with the seasons. You decide to investigate the relationship between temperature and the sale of these products and compile the table of data below.

Month	Avg Temperature	# Of Cold Drinks Sold	# of Cookies Sold	# of Hot Cocoa's Sold
January	39	110	50	270
February	42	130	30	255
March	51	155	80	180
April	62	168	68	140
May	72	200	100	28
June	81	210	50	16
July	86	250	39
August	84	255	80
September	77	216	60	14
October	88	220	70
November	55	139	40	195
December	44	115	90	240

If your last name begins with the letter R-Z, you will look at the relationship between hot cocoa sales and temperature.

Indicate whether you think hot cocoa sales and temperature have positive, negative or zero correlation and explain your reasoning. Copy and paste the data in the table above into Excel and create a Scatterplot of the two variables. Save the Excel file and attach it to your post. Does the scatterplot back up your conjecture? Use the following link: Excel Scatterplot Tutorial