php script to detect correlation between numbers

photon detector calibrator. we have multiple photon detectors from different vendors whose sensitivity differ. this system will be designed to detect lagged correlations between vendors. a lead input will be compared to multiple other inputs over time. time being maximum of 1 hour. basic logic for the system will be as such: we have a lead input number and multiple comparitor inputs. each lead input will be measured over time against fluctuations over the comparitor inputs. for example lead input is measured over comparitor input 1,2,3 comparitor input 2 fluctuates by 20,inputs 1 & 3 gradually move up and down. lead input moves up 20 within the 1 hour timeframe. once is nothing but twice means input 2 is correlated to the lead input. this correlation is positive correlation and lead input is now marked as positively correlated to input 2. correlations arent permanant so these correlations have to be constantly measured. if the comparitor input that is marked as correlated moves by 20 and the lead input doesnt move by by this value or at least 50% then it is no longer correlated. negative correlations also need to be measured. using the same logic as above but in reverse. for example if the comparitor input 2 moves down by 20 and the lead input moves up by this value or 50% of this value over the next hour it becomes negatively correlated. basic error checking redundancies ----------------------------------- each input will be timestamped, any inputs that come in too late will be discarded. all inputs are collected on a 1 second basis. and arbitrarily high numbers are discarded unless they are consistently inputted. each input number is a decimal setup will use the following: mysql database apache2 webserver php5 inputs to be gathered by get out put requests within the php script scripting will be coded in php, values and correlations will be stored and calculated against in the mysql database. the lead input number will fluctuate over the one hour period even if its not correlated. can simulate number input reads with a cron job running a php script