Post by mike on Dec 13, 2013 13:31:14 GMT -5
To avoid unecessary further derailment of Raybar's interesting topic on brains and cooking, I'm starting a new thread to discuss the real meaning and usages of correlation. Below is the complete OED definition from their online dictionary. I don't have a hard copy so cannot say if it is the same or not.
Looking at 1.a. The condition of being correlated; mutual relation of two or more things (implying intimate or necessary connection).
we can ask, does an intimate or necessary connection mean a causal connection? The answer is given further down in a couple of examples:
If you want to take everything back to the Big Bang then everything is ultimately causally related to everything else, be we are more interested in proximate rather than ultimate relations I think.
Looking at 1.a. The condition of being correlated; mutual relation of two or more things (implying intimate or necessary connection).
we can ask, does an intimate or necessary connection mean a causal connection? The answer is given further down in a couple of examples:
- "There is..a mysterious law of correlation of growth between the hair and the teeth.
" This is not to say that the growing of hair causes teeth to grow. The intimate connection is with some third factor, perhaps a hormone. The relation between hair and teeth is not causal. The relation between hair and say a hormone may be causal. There is one correlation that is causal and one that isn't. Thus correlation is not necessarily causal. - Another proof of the correlation of heat and electricity. This, I think, refers to the well known correlation between electrical resistance and thermal resistance, or Ohm's Law and Fourier's Law.
If you want to take everything back to the Big Bang then everything is ultimately causally related to everything else, be we are more interested in proximate rather than ultimate relations I think.
correlation, n.
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Pronunciation: /kɒrɪˈleɪʃən/
Etymology: < cor- prefix + relation n.: compare French corrélation , and see ... (Show More)
1.
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a. The condition of being correlated; mutual relation of two or more things (implying intimate or necessary connection).
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. xvii. §14 If he did set before vs only an empty imaginatiue forme of bred..where were ye correlation or similitude [L. analogia aut similitudo] which should leade vs from the visible thing to the inuisible.
1658 Sir T. Browne Garden of Cyrus in Hydriotaphia iii. 156 How in animall natures, even colours hold correspondencies, and mutuall correlations.
1849 R. I. Murchison Siluria viii. 148 The rocks of Cumberland will be placed in precise correlation with the types of Shropshire and Wales.
1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic iii. 51 The mutual dependence and correlation of these three Axioms.
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†b. Relationship (of persons). Obs.
1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar 10 ⁋9 Christian charity is a higher thing than to be confined within the terms of dependence and correlation.
1652 E. Sparke Scintillula Altaris (1663) 89 Christ..made choise of brethren, as..Simon..and Andrew..hereby..providing against schisme..both by corporall and spirituall correlation.
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c. In Statistics, an interdependence of two or more variable quantities such that a change in the value of one is associated with a change in the value or the expectation of the others; also, the value of this as represented by a correlation coefficient. So correlation coefficient or coefficient of correlation : a number between −1 and 1 calculated so as to represent the linear interdependence of two variables or two sets of data; spec. the product-moment coefficient (see product n.1).
1888 F. Galton in Proc. Royal Soc. 45 143 The statures of kinsmen are co-related variables; thus, the stature of the father is correlated to that of the adult son,..and so on; but the index of co-relation..is different in the different cases.
1896 K. Pearson in Proc. Royal Soc. 59 302 Let r0 be the coefficient of correlation between parent and offspring.
1896 K. Pearson in Proc. Royal Soc. 59 303 We conclude that there is a sensible correlation (circa 0·18) between fertility and height in the mothers of daughters.
1909 W. Elderton & E. Elderton Primer Statistics 57 In such cases there is no relationship, therefore, between length and breadth, and we say that the ‘coefficient of correlation’ is zero.
1933 Forestry 7 27 It may be stated that a correlation coefficient is a number expressing the degree of correlation between two variates, as, for example, weight and volume, or specific gravity and strength. A correlation coefficient of +1 indicates a direct linear relation, a coefficient of −1 indicates an inverse linear relation, while one of 0·0 indicates absence of relations between the variates.
1943 N. Balchin Small Back Room i. 8 There's a positive correlation between penetration and the height of the man firing.
1960 F. Land Lang. Math. xiv. 247 We need to be able to describe this gradation from perfect correlation to no correlation at all, and for this purpose we can calculate a ‘correlation coefficient’.
1964 R. von Mises Math. Theory Probability & Statistics xi. 572 Out of 239 patients treated with serum, 9 patients died, and out of 244 left without serum, 29 died. Compute the correlation coefficient between treatment and recovery.
1969 Computers & Humanities 3 145 After correlation coefficients are computed for every pair of variables, they are entered in a correlation matrix which summarizes the degree of similarity between pairs of variables.
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2. correlation of forces (in Physics): a phrase introduced by Grove to express the mutual relation that exists between the various forms of force or energy, by virtue of which any one form is convertible into an equivalent amount of any other. (Cf. conservation n. 3.)
1846 W. R. Grove On Correlation Physical Forces 44 The sense I have attached to the word correlation..[is] a reciprocal production..in other words, that any force capable of producing..another may, in its turn be produced by it.
1869 M. Somerville Molec. Sci. i. ii. 33 Another proof of the correlation of heat and electricity.
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3. Biol. Mutual relation of association between different structures, characteristics, etc. in an animal or plant; ‘the normal coincidence of one phenomenon, character, etc., with another’ (Darwin Origin of Species, Gloss.).
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species Introd. 5, I shall discuss the complex and little known..laws of variation and of correlation of growth.
1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life 105 The correlation of large size of ova with the completion of development before hatching.
1883 19th Cent. May 763 There is..a mysterious law of correlation of growth between the hair and the teeth.
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4. Geom. The reciprocal relation between propositions, figures, etc. derivable from each other by interchanging the words point and plane, or point and line: cf. correlative adj. 6.
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5. The action of correlating or bringing into mutual relation.
1879 ‘G. Eliot’ Theophrastus Such xi. 204 It is on such false correlations that men found half their inferences about each other.
1886 A. J. Jukes-Browne Student's Handbk. Hist. Geol. iv. iii. 27 The correlation and classification of rocks on Palæontological principles.
1963 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) i. 6 Correlation, the process of orientating underground survey lines or of coordinating underground survey stations to the National Grid.
View as:Outline |Full entryQuotations:Show all |Hide all
Pronunciation: /kɒrɪˈleɪʃən/
Etymology: < cor- prefix + relation n.: compare French corrélation , and see ... (Show More)
1.
Thesaurus »
a. The condition of being correlated; mutual relation of two or more things (implying intimate or necessary connection).
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. xvii. §14 If he did set before vs only an empty imaginatiue forme of bred..where were ye correlation or similitude [L. analogia aut similitudo] which should leade vs from the visible thing to the inuisible.
1658 Sir T. Browne Garden of Cyrus in Hydriotaphia iii. 156 How in animall natures, even colours hold correspondencies, and mutuall correlations.
1849 R. I. Murchison Siluria viii. 148 The rocks of Cumberland will be placed in precise correlation with the types of Shropshire and Wales.
1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic iii. 51 The mutual dependence and correlation of these three Axioms.
(Hide quotations)
Thesaurus »
†b. Relationship (of persons). Obs.
1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar 10 ⁋9 Christian charity is a higher thing than to be confined within the terms of dependence and correlation.
1652 E. Sparke Scintillula Altaris (1663) 89 Christ..made choise of brethren, as..Simon..and Andrew..hereby..providing against schisme..both by corporall and spirituall correlation.
(Hide quotations)
Thesaurus »
Categories »
c. In Statistics, an interdependence of two or more variable quantities such that a change in the value of one is associated with a change in the value or the expectation of the others; also, the value of this as represented by a correlation coefficient. So correlation coefficient or coefficient of correlation : a number between −1 and 1 calculated so as to represent the linear interdependence of two variables or two sets of data; spec. the product-moment coefficient (see product n.1).
1888 F. Galton in Proc. Royal Soc. 45 143 The statures of kinsmen are co-related variables; thus, the stature of the father is correlated to that of the adult son,..and so on; but the index of co-relation..is different in the different cases.
1896 K. Pearson in Proc. Royal Soc. 59 302 Let r0 be the coefficient of correlation between parent and offspring.
1896 K. Pearson in Proc. Royal Soc. 59 303 We conclude that there is a sensible correlation (circa 0·18) between fertility and height in the mothers of daughters.
1909 W. Elderton & E. Elderton Primer Statistics 57 In such cases there is no relationship, therefore, between length and breadth, and we say that the ‘coefficient of correlation’ is zero.
1933 Forestry 7 27 It may be stated that a correlation coefficient is a number expressing the degree of correlation between two variates, as, for example, weight and volume, or specific gravity and strength. A correlation coefficient of +1 indicates a direct linear relation, a coefficient of −1 indicates an inverse linear relation, while one of 0·0 indicates absence of relations between the variates.
1943 N. Balchin Small Back Room i. 8 There's a positive correlation between penetration and the height of the man firing.
1960 F. Land Lang. Math. xiv. 247 We need to be able to describe this gradation from perfect correlation to no correlation at all, and for this purpose we can calculate a ‘correlation coefficient’.
1964 R. von Mises Math. Theory Probability & Statistics xi. 572 Out of 239 patients treated with serum, 9 patients died, and out of 244 left without serum, 29 died. Compute the correlation coefficient between treatment and recovery.
1969 Computers & Humanities 3 145 After correlation coefficients are computed for every pair of variables, they are entered in a correlation matrix which summarizes the degree of similarity between pairs of variables.
(Hide quotations)
Thesaurus »
Categories »
2. correlation of forces (in Physics): a phrase introduced by Grove to express the mutual relation that exists between the various forms of force or energy, by virtue of which any one form is convertible into an equivalent amount of any other. (Cf. conservation n. 3.)
1846 W. R. Grove On Correlation Physical Forces 44 The sense I have attached to the word correlation..[is] a reciprocal production..in other words, that any force capable of producing..another may, in its turn be produced by it.
1869 M. Somerville Molec. Sci. i. ii. 33 Another proof of the correlation of heat and electricity.
(Hide quotations)
Thesaurus »
Categories »
3. Biol. Mutual relation of association between different structures, characteristics, etc. in an animal or plant; ‘the normal coincidence of one phenomenon, character, etc., with another’ (Darwin Origin of Species, Gloss.).
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species Introd. 5, I shall discuss the complex and little known..laws of variation and of correlation of growth.
1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life 105 The correlation of large size of ova with the completion of development before hatching.
1883 19th Cent. May 763 There is..a mysterious law of correlation of growth between the hair and the teeth.
(Hide quotations)
Categories »
4. Geom. The reciprocal relation between propositions, figures, etc. derivable from each other by interchanging the words point and plane, or point and line: cf. correlative adj. 6.
Thesaurus »
5. The action of correlating or bringing into mutual relation.
1879 ‘G. Eliot’ Theophrastus Such xi. 204 It is on such false correlations that men found half their inferences about each other.
1886 A. J. Jukes-Browne Student's Handbk. Hist. Geol. iv. iii. 27 The correlation and classification of rocks on Palæontological principles.
1963 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) i. 6 Correlation, the process of orientating underground survey lines or of coordinating underground survey stations to the National Grid.