alleryStart learning →Ice cream sales and shark attacks rise together every summer. What can safely be concluded?
AIce cream causes attacks
BThey are only correlated
CAttacks cause ice cream sales
DThere is no link at all here
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. They are only correlated
1. Correlation measures how strongly two variables move together.
2. Moving together is not proof that one of them causes the other.
3. Here a third factor, warm weather, drives both variables at once.
4. Warm weather sends people to buy ice cream and it also sends them to the beach.
5. So the safe conclusion is that the two are correlated, and nothing more.
_Source: Siyavula Mathematics Grade 12 (Everything Maths, CC BY 4.0), Chapter 9: Statistics_
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