Over the past 40 years, the percentage of homes in the United States with smoke detectors has risen steadily and has plateaued at about 96% (national fire Protection association website, January, 2015). With this increase in the use of home smoke detectors, what has happened to the death rate from home fires? The Data file Smoke Detectors contains 17 years of data on the estimated percentage of homes with smoke detectors and the estimated home fire deaths per million of population.
a. Do you expect a positive or negative relationship between smoke detector use and deaths from home fires? Why or why not?
b. Compute and report the correlation coefficient. is there a positive or negative correlation between smoke detector use and deaths from home fires? Comment.
c. Show a scatter plot of the death rate per million of population and the percentage of homes with smoke detectors?