FlowingData shared some interesting info on how much cars cost version their environmental footprint.
TL;DR: Low emission cars tend to be cheaper in the long run. Hooray for the free market!
The data is also available via the New York Times, along with a much more in-depth conversation about the actual cost of high/low emission cars, but it is behind a paywall. The original data, presented in a fun (nerd fun) interactive website, is available here.
How to use it in class:
1) It's a correlation!
Each car model is a dot with two related data points: Average cost per month and average carbon dioxide emissions per mile.
2) It's Simpson's Paradox!
Note how electric cars (yellow cloud all have similar emissions, but the average cost per month varies. Same for Diesel cars. Overall, you still see the positive correlation in the data, but if you break it down by class of car, the correlation isn't present for every level.
Comments
Post a Comment