Question

The mean height of married American women in their early 20s is 64.5 inches and the standard deviation is 2.5 inches. The mean height of married men the same age is 68.5 inches with standard deviation 2.7 inches. The correlation between the heights of husbands and wives is about

= 0.5.



Suppose that the height of a randomly selected wife was 1 standard deviation below average. Predict the height of her husband without using the least-squares line.

Answer 1

To predict the husband's height given the wife's height, you can use the correlation between the heights of husbands and wives. Subtracting 1 standard deviation from the mean height of married men provides an estimate for the height of the husband.

Step-by-step explanation:

To predict the height of the wife's husband, we need to consider the correlation between the heights of husbands and wives. In this case, the correlation is 0.5, which indicates a moderate positive relationship between the two variables.

If the wife's height is 1 standard deviation below the average height of married women, we can use the correlation to estimate the height of her husband. Since the correlation is positive, we would expect the husband's height to also be 1 standard deviation below average. Therefore, we can subtract 1 standard deviation from the mean height of married men to predict the height of her husband.

Using the given information, we can calculate the predicted height as follows:

Predicted husband's height = Mean height of married men - 1 * Standard deviation = 68.5 inches - 2.7 inches = 65.8 inches