The abalone data set was analysed by Sean Kelly.
This dataset contains roughly 2000 instances of measurements of abalone
shellfish. The biggest issue in visualizing it was the lack of distinct target attribute
for attribute ranking functions. Only one attribute in the set is nominal, and many
functions don’t like numeric targets. Thus, for museum display, I evaluated the
dataset using 2 or 3 functions targeting each of 3 attributes (2 numeric, 1 nominal).
Unsurprisingly, weight showed greatest correlation with size and number of
rings (age). The attributes with greatest correlation to number of rings were all
weights, indicating abalones get heavier fairly reliably as they age. Gender-based
plots were harder to read, but generally showed infants were smaller and lighter
than adults of either gender.
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