Final answer:
The correlation coefficient is a numeric value ranging from -1 to 1 that indicates the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two quantitative variables.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correlation coefficient is a numeric value ranging from -1 to 1 that indicates the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two quantitative variables.
A positive correlation coefficient indicates a direct relationship, meaning that as one variable increases, the other variable also tends to increase. In contrast, a negative correlation coefficient indicates an indirect relationship, where as one variable increases, the other variable tends to decrease.
A correlation coefficient of zero means that there is no linear relationship between the variables, indicating zero correlation.