Quality Quiz:

Click here for a more complete video explanation

Kohl Minor approaches statistics like your mother scans cookbooks. Looking through a statistical "cookbook," Minor finds the concept of multiple regression appealing enough to try it out. He especially likes the way the term rolls off the tongue, sounding impressively complex and worthy of applause.

Putting his ingredients together, Minor gathers data related to total cost of the mining operation, the number of tons of coal mined, and the depth of the shaft currently being mined.

Kohl enters this data into a statistical software program that does multiple regression, and the following printout ensues:

Hal Zangels, Kohl Minor's boss, is suitably impressed with the printout that Kohl has cooked up. He studies it carefully, and is prepared to move on, but Kohl is so impressed with his own creation that he blurts out, "You know, this means that the mine is at a constant rate of 2, and yesterday we mined .4 tons of coal, with an average shaft size of .6."

a) Is this another example of a time when Kohl Minor should have kept his mouth shut?

b) or has Kohl Minor actually mastered analysis of multiple regression?

Copyright 2006 PQ Systems.
Please direct questions or problems regarding this web site to the Webmaster.