Smoothing Data

[Adapt]

Hey guys,

Similar to everyone here, I started my data analysis sac recently, and I was wondering about something. Say you have a time series plot that is a downwards trend with an r-value of -0.995. The data decreases after every step and basically looks like a line with a negative slope. For one, would you still say it has irregular fluctuations? The Cambridge textbook states that this is a feature of all real-world time series plots, so would I write it is a downwards trend with irregular fluctuations, or just a downwards trend.

Also, if a question asks if smoothing is necessary, do I just say no? Median smoothing would definitely be unnecessary as it would not change the graph at all, and mean smoothing may help "remove any irregular fluctuations", but it won't reveal anything new about the graph.

[MEH0010]

Hey guys,

Similar to everyone here, I started my data analysis sac recently, and I was wondering about something. Say you have a time series plot that is a downwards trend with an r-value of -0.995. The data decreases after every step and basically looks like a line with a negative slope. For one, would you still say it has irregular fluctuations? The Cambridge textbook states that this is a feature of all real-world time series plots, so would I write it is a downwards trend with irregular fluctuations, or just a downwards trend.

Also, if a question asks if smoothing is necessary, do I just say no? Median smoothing would definitely be unnecessary as it would not change the graph at all, and mean smoothing may help "remove any irregular fluctuations", but it won't reveal anything new about the graph.

You would say it has a downward trend with irregular fluctuations.
Smoothing really depends, if there are big irregular fluctuations smoothing the data may/would be required, but if there is a clear trend smoothing may not be necessary.