We know that the strongest correlations are -1 and +1 and that the weakest hover around 0, but what does 0.5000 mean? To some extent, judging whether a 0.5000 value is strong or weak is a arbitrary. It is possible to approach this question from a more technical perspective. That is, the Pearson correlation is also known as Pearson's r and this "r" is in fact related to "r2" or what is also known as the Coefficient of Determination, thus if we take the value of 0.5000 and square it we get 0.25. Now, an r2 of 0.25 is relatively large in some fields of research, but in essense we can state that we can account for only 25% of the variation around the dependent variable using this particular independent variable. Thus, in the larger scheme of things, a correlation of 0.5000 may not be as strong as we originally thought.