Final answer:
The process of identifying the relationship between two variables involves deciding the independent and dependent variables, drawing a scatter plot, calculating the least-squares line, finding the correlation coefficient, and examining the linearity of the relationship.
Step-by-step explanation:
The process of identifying the relationship between two variables involves several steps:
- Decide which variable should be the independent variable and which should be the dependent variable.
- Draw a scatter plot of the data to visually inspect if there is a relationship between the variables.
- Calculate the least-squares line, which represents the line of best fit, in the form of ŷ = a + bx.
- Find the correlation coefficient, which measures the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables.
- Interpret the significance of the correlation coefficient to determine if it is statistically significant.
- Examine if there is a linear relationship between the variables based on the scatter plot and the least-squares line.