Question

I Have an assignment which is requiring to me to draw scientific correlations between 3-6 parameters of data collected.The data collected was in regards to BMI, height, weight, resting heart rates before and after exercise,Gender, wrist and waist circumference, postcode, air pollution and bushfires. For my scientific report and analysis I have decided to choose BMI and air pollution, but I don't know how to scatterplot or correlate the information valid for my investigation as there are so many variable to contribute to my correlation, for example BMI correlates with height, weight and gender and air pollution correlates with postcode, how do I collate all of this together to make clear correlations between BMI and Air pollution?

Answer 1

• As you have choosen BMI and air pollution to draw correlations with the data, the first thing that should be done is finding the mean of one set of the data (X', Y').
• Then, calculate the standard deviation for both sets of these data (sx, sy).
• Afterwards, you need to substract the mean from each of the data for each of the set.
• The results of this substraction of mean from each data should then be multiplied. [(X - X') (Y - Y')].
• This value of each data should then be added and then divied by the product of the standard deviation of the two data sets.
• Divide the result of this with (n - 1), where n is the total number of data collected. This will give you correlation between two sets of data.

As you have to find correlations between 3 - 6 parameters. You can follow the above method to find correlation between BMI and height, BMI and weight, BMI and gender, BMI and air pollution, and so on.

In order to scatter plot, you will need to plot the data on graph with the independent variable on X-axis (such as height, weight) and dependent variable on Y axis (BMI). In case of a correlation, the points will fall in a line.