For the two variables X and Y, the following observations are tabulated.

X: 3 4 4
Y: 10 10 9


The Spearman's correlation coefficient is:

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  1. -0.125
  2. -0.120
  3. -0.100
  4. -0.110

Answer (Detailed Solution Below)

Option 1 : -0.125
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Detailed Solution

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The correct answer is -0.125.

 Key Points

  • Spearman's correlation coefficient is a measure of the monotonic association between two variables.
    • It measures how well the rank order of one variable corresponds to the rank order of the other variable.
  • A positive correlation means that as the rank of one variable increases, the rank of the other variable also increases.
  • A negative correlation means that as the rank of one variable increases, the rank of the other variable decreases.
  • To calculate Spearman's correlation coefficient, we first need to calculate the ranks of the data in X and Y.
  • The ranks are assigned based on the order of the data, with the smallest value receiving the rank of 1 and the largest value receiving the rank of the number of data points.
  • If there are ties, the average rank is assigned.
  • The ranks for X are: 1, 2, 2
  • The ranks for Y are: 3, 3, 1
  • Next, we calculate the difference between the ranks for each data point, square the differences, and sum them.

The formula is as follows:

\(ρ = {1 - {{{6 \times \sum d^2}} \over {N \times (N^2 - 1)}}}\)

where N is the number of data points and d is the difference between the ranks of X and Y for each data point.

Putting the value of ds and n, we have ρ = -0.125

  • The result of -0.125 means that there is a weak negative correlation between the two variables.

Additional Information

  • Spearman's correlation coefficient measures the monotonic association between two variables.
    • It measures the correspondence between the rank orders of the variables.
  • A positive correlation means that as the rank of one variable increases, the rank of the other variable also increases.
  • A negative correlation means that as the rank of one variable increases, the rank of the other variable decreases.

 Important Points

  • Spearman's correlation coefficient is a non-parametric measure, meaning that it does not make assumptions about the underlying distribution of the data.
    • It can be used with both continuous and ordinal data.
  • Spearman's correlation coefficient is only appropriate to use when there is a monotonic relationship between the variables.
    • If the relationship is not monotonic, other measures, such as Pearson's correlation coefficient, may be more appropriate.
  • The strength of the correlation is determined by the magnitude of the coefficient.
    • A value close to +1 or -1 indicates a strong correlation, while a value close to 0 indicates a weak correlation.
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