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How to calculate the correlation coefficient

Online graphing calculator tutorial on correlation coefficient

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Many of us go out to the store and buy a graphing calculator, then when we get home, we wonder what next? The purpose of these tutorials is the answer that question!

All modern TI graphing calculators (that I know about) allow you to calculate various types of statistics. The TI-84 Plus, in particular, has a powerful suite of statistics tools.

Demonstration problem: Calculate the correlation coefficient between women's shoe size and foot length.

Part I enter the data into List₁

Step 1) In order for the graphing calculator to be able to calculate the correlation coefficient. You must change a setting in the calculator. Press "2nd" then "CATALOG" (above the zero button in most TI Calculators)
Step 2) Scroll down to the "D" area (this catalog list is alphabetical) and stop when you are at "DiaGnosticOn".Press "Enter"
Step 3) You should see "DiaGnosticOn" displayed on the main calculator screen
Step 4) Press "enter"

Now, your calculator is actually prepared to calculate the correlation coefficient. Our next task is to enter the data into the lists of the calculator.

Step 1) Press "Stat"
Step 2) Hit "enter" button and you should see the three lists on the right. In the next step we will enter all of the scores into L1
Step 3) Enter the women's shoe size into list 1 and the the foot length into list 2.
Step 5) Press "Stat" again
Step 6) Scroll Right to "Calc"
Step 7) Scroll down to "LinReg"
Step 8) Press "enter". Your calculator screen should look like the screen shot on the right
Step 9) Hit "enter" and the last item, 'r' represents the correlation coefficient.