The correlation coefficient measure of how closely a best-fit curve matches the given data.
The correlation coefficient, sometimes also called the cross-correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), Pearson's r, the Perason product-moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC), or the bivariate correlation, is a quantity that gives the quality of a least squares fitting to the original data. To define the correlation coefficient, first consider the sum of squared values ss_(x x), ss_(x y), and ss_(y y) of a set of n data points (x_i, y_i) about their respective means,
college level (AP statistics, California probability and statistics standard)