On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted that Pluto is not a planet. Some members of the public have been reluctant to accept that decision. Let's look at some of the data. (We'll see more in the next chapter.) Is there any pattern to the locations of the planets? The table shows the average distance of each of the traditional nine planets from the sun.
|
Planet
|
Position Number
|
Distance from Sun (million miles)
|
|
Mercury
|
1
|
36
|
|
Venus
|
2
|
67
|
|
Earth
|
3
|
93
|
|
Mars
|
4
|
142
|
|
Jupiter
|
5
|
484
|
|
Saturn
|
6
|
887
|
|
Uranus
|
7
|
1784
|
|
Neptune
|
8
|
2796
|
|
Pluto
|
9
|
3666
|
a) Make a scatterplot and describe the association. (Remember: direction, form, and strength!)
b) Why would you not want to talk about the correlation between a planet s Position and Distance from the sun?
c) Make a scatterplot showing the logarithm of Distance vs. Position. What is better about this scatterplot?