Some problems of interpreting the correlations between the modal variables in granitic rocks

Abstract

Correlation coefficients of modal variables from several suites of granitic rocks have been calculated and tested for significance using the Chayes-Kruskal and Chayes methods. The results show that although Chayes' remaining-space transformation does, in general, weaken the original proportion correlations, the positive and low-negative original proportion correlations tend to increase in absolute value because of a tendency of positive increment of the covariance by such transformation. However, no satisfactory procedure for choosing the variable to be transformed (V2)could be determined, and testing of the significance of remaining-space correlations is found to be highly problematic. It is shown also that the Vistelius-Sarmanov procedure of calculation of correlation coefficients from closed-table data does not effectively eliminate the closure effect. It is concluded that assigning statistical significance to the correlation coefficients between modal variables is, in general, unsatisfactory, except where the number of variables ⩾8,the sample size is large (say, ⩾30),and there is no negative element in the variance vector of the corresponding open variables.