An analyst gathers data on the number of hours of political debates watched per week and the sales of antacids. She expects that political debate watching will help explain antacid sales.
In a scatterplot of her data:
A) hours of political debate watching should be on the horizontal axis.
B) antacid sales should be on the horizontal axis.
C) it makes no difference which is horizontal.
D) a scatterplot is not an appropriate type of graph for these data.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In a scatterplot, the independent variable (hours of political debate watching) is usually placed on the horizontal axis, and the dependent variable (antacid sales) on the vertical axis. This convention helps to clarify the direction of the relationship between the two variables.

An Analyst Gathers Data on the Number of Hours of Political