167,070 views
29 votes
29 votes
The temperature during a very cold day is recorded every 2 hours for 12 hours. The data are given in the table below

The temperature during a very cold day is recorded every 2 hours for 12 hours. The-example-1
User Mvantellingen
by
2.2k points

1 Answer

21 votes
21 votes

Looking at the values in the table, we can see that the values start increasing and then they decrease.

Since there is only one change from increasing to decreasing, the best type of polynomial to describe the data set is a quadratic polynomial.

A linear polynomial don't have any changes from increasing to decreasing or vice-versa. A cubic polynomial has 2 and a quartic polynomial has 3.

Therefore the correct option is the third one.

User Sergei Shushkevich
by
3.0k points