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Correlation Coefficient

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Correlation coefficient   (English)

Definition (advanced level)

The correlation coefficient measures how closely two variables or sets of data agree. For variables X and Y it is defined as:
ρ = Cov(X, Y)




Var(X)Var(Y)
.

If it is equal to 1 or -1, the two variables have a straight-line relationship. If it is equal to zero, then the two variables are uncorrelated (not necessarily independent).
For two samples of equal size xi, yi, the correlation coefficient is r = [( ∑i ( xi − [(x)] )( yi − [(y)] ) )/( √{ ( ∑i ( xi − [(x)] ) 2 ) ( ∑i ( yi − [(y)] ) 2 ) })] .

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