Question

Question 13. For each pair of variables, specify which variable is the explanatory variable and which is the response variable. Also identify whether the variable is categorical or numerical.

1. The time student spends for the study and her/his final score
2. The car engine size and car’s maximum speed

Answer 1

An Explanatory variable is a kind of like independent variable, but differs in the fact that its independence is not certain. These variables are capable of explaining the change in response variables.

Numerical Variables are numbers (with their meaning intact) and can be of 2 types

    Discrete : No. of houses, intergral scores, no. of cylinders in an engine, etc

    Continuous: Weight, Body Mass Index, Velocity, Volume, Time, etc

Categorical Variables are those varriables whose data are limited to certain values

    Nominal: No order, ie, one has no dominance over other

                   color, gender, religion, etc

    Ordinal: Some values are higher than others

                 grade, engine size, clothing size, etc

ANSWER (a)

Explanatory variable : Time student spends (Numerical)

Response variable : His/Her Score (Numerical)

ANSWER (b)

Explanatory variable : Car engine size (Categorical)

Its categorical because the no. of different unique values is very small as they are built in bulk with the fixed sizes.

Response variable : Car's Maximum speed (Numerical)