[DATA] Crickets make a chirping noise by sliding their wings r...

Question

[DATA] Crickets make a chirping noise by sliding their wings rapidly over each other. Perhaps you have noticed that the number of chirps seems to increase with the temperature. The following data list the temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) and the number of chirps per second for the striped ground cricket.
a. What is the most likely explanatory variable in these data? Explain your reasoning.

a. What is the most likely explanatory variable in these data? Explain your reasoning.

Table showing temperatures in Fahrenheit and corresponding cricket chirps per second in two columns of paired data.

Accepted Answer

Hello there. Today we're gonna solve the following practice problem together. So first off, let us read the problem and highlight all the key pieces of information that we need to use in order to solve this problem. A scientist wants to know if the amount of sunlight a plant receives each day can be used to predict the plant's growth in centimeters. Identify the explanatory and response variables. Awesome. So it appears for this particular problem we're asked to identify the explanatory and response variables. And those are our final answers that we're ultimately trying to solve for. And we're also asked to consider the fact that a scientist wants to know if the amount of sunlight that a plant receives each day can be used to predict the plant's growth in units of centimeters. So with that in mind, let's read off our multiple choice answers to see what our final answer might be. A is plant growth is the explanatory variable and amount of sunlight is the response variable. B is both variables are response variables. C is both variables are explanatory variables, and D is amount of sunlight is the explanatory variable, and plant growth is the response variable. Awesome. So our first step that we need to take in order to solve this problem is we need to recall and note that the variable used to explain or predict is the explanatory variable, and once again considering the fact that the variable that is Used to explain or predict will be the explanatory variable, and the variable in this particular problem that is used to explain or predict will be the amount of sunlight a plant receives each day will be the explanatory variable. So I'll make a note that sunlight. So sunlight is our explanatory variable, which I'll just call E for short. Our second step now is we need to recall and note that the variable being predicted is considered the response variable, and the variable in this particular case that is being predicted will be the plant's growth, and the plant's growth once again will be our response variable, which I'll call R for short. So once again, the plant's growth in units of centimeters will be the response variable. So that means, without a doubt, our final answer will have to be multiple choice answer letter D, which once again is the amount of sunlight is the explanatory variable, and the plant growth is the response variable, and that's it. That is our final answer. Thank you so much for watching. Hopefully that helped, and I can't wait to see you in the next video. Bye.

Key Concepts

Explanatory and Response Variables

Paired Data and Relationship Analysis

Correlation and Causation

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