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Tessa owns a small clothes shop in a seaside town - Edexcel - A-Level Maths Statistics - Question 2 - 2018 - Paper 2

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Tessa owns a small clothes shop in a seaside town. She records the weekly sales figures, £w, and the average weekly temperature, °C, for 8 weeks during the summer. T... show full transcript

Worked Solution & Example Answer:Tessa owns a small clothes shop in a seaside town - Edexcel - A-Level Maths Statistics - Question 2 - 2018 - Paper 2

Step 1

Stating your hypotheses clearly and using a 5% level of significance, test whether or not the correlation between sales figures and average weekly temperature is negative.

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Answer

Let:

  • Null hypothesis (H0): ρ = 0 (no correlation)
  • Alternative hypothesis (H1): ρ < 0 (negative correlation)

Using a significance level of 5%, we compare the product moment correlation coefficient of -0.915 against the critical value of -0.6215. Since -0.915 < -0.6215, we reject the null hypothesis. This indicates a significant negative correlation between weekly sales figures and average weekly temperature.

Step 2

Suggest a possible reason for this correlation.

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Answer

As temperature increases, people tend to spend more time on the beach and less time shopping. This could lead to a decrease in weekly sales figures for Tessa's clothing shop.

Step 3

State, giving a reason, whether or not the correlation coefficient is consistent with Tessa's suggestion.

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Answer

The correlation coefficient of -0.915 is consistent with Tessa's suggestion of a negative correlation. A strong negative correlation implies that as one variable increases (temperature), the other variable (sales) decreases.

Step 4

State, giving a reason, which variable would be the explanatory variable.

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Answer

The variable £w, representing weekly sales figures, would be the explanatory variable, as sales are likely to depend on the average weekly temperature.

Step 5

Give an interpretation of the gradient of this regression equation.

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Answer

The gradient of the regression equation w = 10 755 - 171l indicates that for every 1°C increase in average weekly temperature, the weekly sales figures are expected to decrease by £171. This reflects the negative impact that rising temperatures have on clothing sales.

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