Coefficient of determination

Coefficient of determination is a way for scientists to measure how well a prediction matches up with the actual data. It's like a way to rate how accurate a prediction is. It's kind of like a report card for predictions where a higher score is better. A scientist would compare their prediction to the actual data and then get a number from 0-1. A number of 0 means the prediction was no better than a guess and a number of 1 means the prediction perfectly matched the data.