Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
Amir Rattner
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
Han Liu
Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, United States
Jeremy Nathans
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, the Department of Neuroscience, the Department of Ophthalmology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
The use of the least squares method to calculate the best-fitting line through a two-dimensional scatter plot typically requires the user to assume that one of the variables depends on the other. However, in many cases the relationship between the two variables is more complex, and it is not valid to say that one variable is independent and the other is dependent. When analysing such data researchers should consider plotting the three regression lines that can be calculated for any two-dimensional scatter plot.
