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Exercise

Transforming the explanatory variable

If there is no straight-line relationship between the response variable and the explanatory variable, it is sometimes possible to create one by transforming one or both of the variables. Here, you'll look at transforming the explanatory variable.

You'll take another look at the Taiwan real estate dataset, this time using the distance to the nearest MRT (metro) station as the explanatory variable. You'll use code to make every commuter's dream come true: shortening the distance to the metro station by taking the square root. Take that, geography!

taiwan_real_estate is available.

Instructions 1/4
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  • Look at the plot.
  • Add a new column to taiwan_real_estate called sqrt_dist_to_mrt_m that contains the square root of dist_to_mrt_m.
  • Create the same scatter plot as the first one, but use the new transformed variable on the x-axis instead.
  • Look at the new plot. Notice how the numbers on the x-axis have changed. This is a different line to what was shown before. Do the points track the line more closely?
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