Question

A researcher studied the relationship between the number of times a certain species of cricket will chirp in one minute and temperature outside. Her data is expressed in the scatter plot and line of best fit below. What does the slope of the line represent?A) How long the cricket continues to chirpB) The expected temperature when the cricket chirps 1 timeC) The expected change in temperature in degrees Fahrenheit for each additional cricket chirp in one minuteD) The expected change in number of cricket chirps in one minute for each additional degree Fahrenheit

Answer 1

Observe the Scatter Plot carefully. The temperature values span the y-axis while the number of chirps are given on the x-axis.

The slope of a line is defined as

`m=(\Delta y)/(\Delta x)\Rightarrow m=\frac{y_2-y_1_{}}{x_2-x_1}`

Thus, the slope refers to the change in quantity 'y' corresponding to a unit change in quantity 'x'.

So the slope of the line on the scatter plot refers to the change in temperature corresponding to a unit change in the number of chirps by the cricket.

That is, the temperature change that happens when the number of chirps change by 1 unit.

Thus, Option (c) will be the correct choice.