The following table lists the temperature (in Fahrenheit, ${ }^{\circ} F$ ) and the number of chirps per second for the striped ground cricket.
| Temperature ( x ) | Chirps per second (y) |
|---------------------|-------------------------|
| 88.6 | 20 |
| 93.3 | 19.8 |
| 80.6 | 17.1 |
| 69.7 | 14.7 |
| 69.4 | 15.4 |
| 79.6 | 15 |
After entering the data in $R$, what do you need to type to create an $x-y$ scatterplot? Fill the blank below.
$\begin{array}{l}
x<-c(88,6,93,3,80,6,69,7,69,4,79,6) \\
y<-c(20,19,8,17,1,14,7,15,4,15) \\
\text { cbind( } x, y \text { ) } \\
( x, y ) \\
\end{array}$
correlation( $x, y$ )
boxplot(x, y)
regression( $x, y$ )
$\operatorname{plot}(x, y)$
Answer (1)
The problem requires identifying the R command for creating a scatterplot.
plot(x, y) creates a scatterplot with x on the horizontal axis and y on the vertical axis.
Other options like cbind , correlation , and boxplot serve different purposes.
The correct command is pl o t ( x , y ) .
Explanation
Understanding the Problem The problem provides a table of temperatures and corresponding cricket chirp rates. The goal is to identify the correct R command to generate a scatterplot of this data, given that the temperature data is stored in a variable x and the chirp rate data in a variable y .
Identifying the Correct Command In R, the plot(x, y) function is used to create a scatterplot where x represents the values on the horizontal axis and y represents the values on the vertical axis. This function directly addresses the problem's objective.
Eliminating Incorrect Options The other options are incorrect:
cbind(x, y) : This command combines x and y into a matrix, not a scatterplot.
correlation(x, y) : This command calculates the correlation coefficient between x and y , not a scatterplot.
boxplot(x, y) : This command creates boxplots for x and y separately, not a scatterplot of x versus y .
regression(x, y) : This is not a standard R command for creating a scatterplot or performing a simple linear regression.
Conclusion Therefore, the correct R command to create an x-y scatterplot is plot(x, y) .
Examples
Scatterplots are useful in many real-world scenarios. For example, you could plot study time versus exam scores to see if there's a relationship between the two. Similarly, a business might plot advertising spending versus sales to understand the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. In environmental science, you could plot pollution levels versus distance from a factory to analyze the impact of industrial activity. These plots help visualize relationships and identify trends.
