Statistical correlations can be visualized using __________.

• A. Box plots
• B. Line charts
• C. Scatter plots
• D. Histograms

Answer: (C)

To see how two numeric variables relate, you use a scatter plot. In a scatter plot, each point represents an observation with its value on the x-axis and its value on the y-axis. If the points tend to rise together as you move right, there’s a positive correlation; if one tends to fall as the other rises, there’s a negative correlation; if the points show no clear pattern, there’s little to no correlation. The strength of the relationship is visible by how tightly the points cluster around a line—the tighter the cluster, the stronger the linear relationship. You can also add a line of best fit to summarize the trend. Other charts serve different purposes: box plots compare distributions across categories, histograms show the distribution of a single variable, and line charts track changes over time or another ordered dimension, but they don’t visualize the relationship between two numeric variables as effectively as a scatter plot.