49. Planets (more or less) On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted that Pluto is not a planet. Some members of the public have been reluctant to accept that decision. Let’s look at some of the data. Is there any pattern to the locations of the planets? The table shows the average distance of each of the traditional nine planets from the Sun.

a) Make a scatterplot and describe the association. (Remember: direction, form, and strength!)

b) Why would you not want to talk about the correlation between a planet’s Position Number and Distance from the sun?

c) Make a scatterplot showing the logarithm (any base) of Distance vs. Position Number. What is better about this scatterplot?

Position Planet Number Distance from Sun (million miles) Mercury 1 36 Venus 2 67 Earth 3 93 Mars 4 142 Jupiter 5 484 Saturn Uranus Neptune 819 6 887 7 1784 2796 Pluto 9 3666