Veterinary Science: Shetland Ponies How much should a healthy Shetland pony weigh? Let x be the age of the pony (in months), and let y be the average weight of the pony (in kilograms). The following information is based on data taken from The Merck Veterinary Manual (a reference used in most veterinary colleges).

x 3 6 12 18 24 y 60 95 140 170 185

(a) Make a scatter diagram and draw the line you think best fits the data.

(b) Would you say the correlation is low, moderate, or strong? positive or negative?

(c) Use a calculator to verify that Sx 5 63, Sx2 51089, Sy 5 650, Sy2 5 95,350, and Sxy 5 9930. Compute r. As x increases from 3 to 24 months, does the value of r imply that y should tend to increase or decrease? Explain.AppendixLO1