Statistician William Hammack examined the relationship between thenumber of public schools in each county of Florida and the crimerate for the county. The data showed a very strong linearrelationship with r = 0.970. From this we conclude

a. Public schools causecrime.
b. There is probably alurking variable at work.
c. This is totallymeaningless.

a. Public schools causecrime.

Step-by-step explanation:

A very strong linear relationship between variables means that when one of the variables increases, the other one increases too. Taking this into account, we can inferred from the statement that when the number of public schools in each county of Florida increases, the crime rate for the county also increases. Because of this, the answer is that public schools cause crime.