The paper Aspects of Food Finding by Wintering Bald Eagles

Chapter 0, Problem 5.54

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The paper Aspects of Food Finding by Wintering Bald Eagles (The Auk [1983]: 477484) examined the relationship between the time that eagles spend aerially searching for food (indicated by the percentage of eagles soaring) and relative food availability. The accompanying data were taken from a scatterplot that appeared in this paper. Let x denote salmon availability and y denote the percentage of eagles in the air. x 0 0 0.2 0.5 0.5 1.0 y 28.2 69.0 27.0 38.5 48.4 31.1 x 1.2 1.9 2.6 3.3 4.7 6.5 y 26.9 8.2 4.6 7.4 7.0 6.8 a. Draw a scatterplot for this data set. Would you describe the plot as linear or curved? b. One possible transformation that might lead to a straighter plot involves taking the square root of both the x and y values. Use Figure 5.31 to explain why this might be a reasonable transformation. c. Construct a scatterplot using the variables and . Is this scatterplot straighter than the scatterplot in Part (a)? d. Using Table 5.5, suggest another transformation that might be used to straighten the original plot.