Questions from Statistics

Q: There is a strong correlation between tobacco smoking and incidence of lung

There is a strong correlation between tobacco smoking and incidence of lung cancer, and most physicians believe that tobacco smoking causes lung cancer. Yet, not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer....

Q: Several things besides smoking have been shown to be probabilistic causal factors

Several things besides smoking have been shown to be probabilistic causal factors in lung cancer. For example, exposure to asbestos and exposure to radon gas, both of which are found in many homes, ca...

Q: Assume that you want to test the claim that adult males in

Assume that you want to test the claim that adult males in California, New York, Colorado, and Texas have the same mean height. What method would you use to test that claim?

Q: A famous study in Forum on Medicine concluded that the mean lifetime

A famous study in Forum on Medicine concluded that the mean lifetime of conductors of major orchestras was 73.4 years, about 5ˆ years longer than the mean lifetime of all American males at the time. T...

Q: A study reported in Nature claims that women who give birth later

A study reported in Nature claims that women who give birth later in life tend to live longer. Of the 78ˆwomen who were at least 100 years old at the time of the study, 19% had given birth after their...

Q: Suppose that people living near a high-voltage power line have

Suppose that people living near a high-voltage power line have a higher incidence of cancer than people living farther from the power line. Can you conclude that the high-voltage power line is the cau...

Q: Those who favor gun control often point to a positive correlation between

Those who favor gun control often point to a positive correlation between the availability of handguns and the homicide rate to support their position that gun control would save lives. Does this corr...

Q: The article “Does Vasectomy Cause Prostate Cancer?” (Chance,

The article “Does Vasectomy Cause Prostate Cancer?” (Chance, Vol. 10, No. 1) reports on several large studies that found an increased risk of prostate cancer among men with vasectomies. In the absence...

Q: What is the difference between finding a correlation between two variables and

What is the difference between finding a correlation between two variables and establishing causality between two variables?

Q: Briefly describe the correlations that made researchers suspect a link between smoking

Briefly describe the correlations that made researchers suspect a link between smoking and lung cancer, and how causality was ultimately established.