The correct answer is:
Find the rate of change (slope) of the data; if it is constant, then the data is linear.
Step-by-step explanation:
While graphing can give us an idea if the data is roughly linear, we need to do some calculation to determine if it is exactly linear.
The slope of a line is its rate of change. In a line, the slope is constant; this means it is the same between each two pairs of points.
This means to check our data set, we find the slope between the first two points, the second two points, etc. and compare them. If all of the slopes are the same, the data is linear.