2 variables x, y are positively correlated if r is close to 1, negatively if r is close to -1 and uncorrelated if r is 0
If the sample size n is small, the probable error of correlation coefficient P.E.R is large, if n is large, then r = 0.1 is still significant
as a rule
Given y as a sum of weighted variables, if we want to reduce X to a smaller set, we would have to determine the correlation of pairs of X. If a pair is highly correlated, we find the correlation of each with respect to y and choose the higher correlated x