Question

a phone company determined that an increase in income does not indicate a change in a customers phone usage. what does the analysis show? (a) there is no correlation between income and phone usage. there may or may not be causation. further studies would have to be done to determine this. (b) there is a correlation between income and phone usage. there is probably also causation. this is because there is likely an increase in phone usage with an increase in income. a music store conducted a survey. it showed that the number of cds purchased by a shopper decreases with the number of songs she downloaded. what can we likely say? there is no correlation between number of cds purchased and number of songs downloaded. there is a correlation between number of cds purchased and number of songs downloaded. however, there is no causation. this is because there is a decrease in the number of cds purchased with an increase in the number of songs downloaded. there may or may not be causation. further studies would have to be done to determine this. (c) carmen compared the statistics from her teams baseball season. she determined that having fewer hits did not imply that a player caught more or fewer balls. what should she conclude? there is no correlation between number of hits and number of balls caught. there may or may not be causation. further studies would have to be done to determine this. there is a correlation between number of hits and number of balls caught. however, there is no causation. this is because there is a decrease in the number of balls caught with a decrease in the number of hits.

Explanation:

Correlation measures the relationship between two variables. Just because there is a correlation does not mean there is causation. Further studies like controlled - experiments are often needed to establish causation.
(a) An increase in income does not necessarily imply a change in phone usage as correlation does not equal causation. Further research is needed.
(b) Since the number of CDs purchased decreases as the number of songs downloaded increases, there is a negative correlation. But we can't say there is causation without more study.
(c) Fewer hits and fewer balls caught shows a correlation, but we can't conclude causation without additional investigation.

Answer:

(a) There is no correlation between income and phone usage. There may or may not be causation. Further studies would have to be done to determine this.
(b) There is a correlation between number of CDs purchased and number of songs downloaded. There is a decrease in the number of CDs purchased with an increase in the number of songs downloaded. However, there is no causation. This is because there may or may not be causation. Further studies would have to be done to determine this.
(c) There is a correlation between number of hits and number of balls caught. There is a decrease in the number of balls caught with a decrease in the number of hits. However, there is no causation. This is because there is probably a correlation between number of hits and number of balls caught with a decrease in the number of hits.