Lead and Zinc Concentrations in River Fish. Like to go fishing? In some areas, it may not be healthy to eat the fish you catch, due to the pollutants in the river that the fish ingest. Use the information in the table for Exercises 84–88. The table contains the lead and zinc concentrations in river fish from the Spokane River in Washington State, in parts per million.3

208

Fish

1 0.73 45.3
2 1.14 50.8
3 0.60 40.2
4 1.59 64.0
5 4.34 150.0
6 1.98 106.0
7 3.12 90.8
8 1.80 58.8
9 0.65 35.4
10 0.56 28.4

Question 4.85

leadzincfish

85. Calculate and interpret the correlation coefficient.

  1. Compute the value of the correlation coefficient.
  2. Does this value for concur with your judgment in part (c) of the previous exercise?
  3. Interpret the meaning of this value of the correlation coefficient.

4.1.85

(a) (b) Yes. (c) This value of is very close to the maximum value . We would therefore say that lead and zinc are positively correlated. As the lead content in the fish increases, the zinc content in the fish also tends to increase.