Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 37 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The additive model gives useful evidence for both predictors. To test for no adjusted sex effect, use against . The statistic has a Student t-distribution with 97 statistical degrees of freedom under the normal linear model and the null hypothesis. Here and . Similarly, against a nonzero common slope gives under the null hypothesis, with . Thus, at a fixed height males have a higher fitted mean weight, and within sex greater height is associated with greater weight.
The interaction model adds . Its female height slope is and its male height slope is . Test against using under the null hypothesis, or equivalently . The -value is 0.73139. The additive model is a reasonable parsimonious choice; the data give no evidence for different height slopes between sexes. This does not establish exact equality of population slopes. The additive model also has the higher adjusted coefficient of determination, 0.405 versus 0.3996, and a slightly smaller residual standard error.
Ignoring sex gives a height slope of 0.8769, appreciably above the adjusted slope 0.6211. This is omitted-variable bias in the descriptive regression: a taller group with a larger intercept makes the pooled height association steeper. Algebraically, with ,The printed estimates imply a positive height-sex covariance. Pooled and adjusted slopes therefore describe different comparisons; the difference is not evidence that adding sex changed a physical effect of height. For predictions, retain both sex and height, check regression diagnostics, and assess performance on new students. The residual standard error near 5.7 remains substantial and the coefficient of determination near 0.42 does not promise precise individual prediction.