Uploaded December 2012 | Updated September 2026, 40 minutes ago
A look at transformations in the context of simple linear regression. I look at two examples where taking a transformation (applying a function to the response and/or explanatory variables) can help to satisfy the assumptions of the simple linear regression model.
The brain and body weight data is from:
Sacher, G.A. Staffeldt, E. (1974). Relation of gestation time to brain weight
for placental mammals: Implications for the theory of vertebrate growth. The American
Naturalist, 108:593--615. The 99 observations represent one pair of measurements for each of the 99 species that had a brain and body weight measurement.
The hardness-density data is found in:
Hand, D.J., Daly, F. , Lunn, A.D., McConway, K., and Ostrowski, E., editors (1994). The Handbook of Small Data Sets. Chapman & Hall, London.
Original source: Williams, E.J. (1959). Regression Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Page 43, Table 3.7.
A look at transformations in the context of simple linear regression. I look at two examples where taking a transformation (applying a function to the response and/or explanatory variables) can help to satisfy the assumptions of the simple linear regression model.
The brain and body weight data is from:
Sacher, G.A. Staffeldt, E. (1974). Relation of gestation time to brain weight
for placental mammals: Implications for the theory of vertebrate growth. The American
Naturalist, 108:593--615. The 99 observations represent one pair of measurements for each of the 99 species that had a brain and body weight measurement.
The hardness-density data is found in:
Hand, D.J., Daly, F. , Lunn, A.D., McConway, K., and Ostrowski, E., editors (1994). The Handbook of Small Data Sets. Chapman & Hall, London.
Original source: Williams, E.J. (1959). Regression Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Page 43, Table 3.7.








![Intro to Confidence Intervals for One Mean (Sigma Known)
An introduction to confidence intervals for the population mean mu. These methods are appropriate when we are sampling from a normally distributed population, where the population standard deviation sigma is known. When the population standard deviation is not known, as is usually the case, we need to use a slightly different method (a method based on the t distribution).
The 2D:4D ratio data (from the right hand) is simulated data with the same summary statistics as found in:
Stevenson et al. (2007). Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Symptoms and Digit Ratios in a College Sample. American Journal of Human Biology. 19:41-50.
For those that use R, here is the R code to find the values given in the video:
To find the value of a standard normal random variable that has an area of 0.025 to the left,
qnorm(.025)
[1] -1.959964
To find the value of a standard normal random variable that has an area of 0.025 to the right,
qnorm(.975)
[1] 1.959964
To find the value of a standard normal random variable that has an area of 0.05 to the left,
qnorm(.05)
[1] -1.644854
To find the value of a standard normal random variable that has an area of 0.05 to the right,
qnorm(.95)
[1] 1.644854 Intro to Confidence Intervals for One Mean (Sigma Known)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KG921rfbTDw/mqdefault.jpg)

