Final answer:
a. To approximate the number of shoppers when the temperature is 70°F, we can use the table to find the nearest temperature values and their corresponding shopper numbers. b. To predict the number of shoppers when the temperature is 85°F, we can use the regression equation to calculate the estimated shopper number.
Step-by-step explanation:
a. To approximate the number of shoppers when the temperature is 70°F, we can find the corresponding value of y from the given table. The nearest temperatures to 70°F in the table are 64°F and 78°F.
The corresponding number of shoppers for 64°F is 384, and for 78°F is 326. Since 70°F is closer to 64°F, we can estimate the number of shoppers to be approximately 384.
b. To predict the number of shoppers when the temperature is 85°F, we can use the regression equation.
From the given data, we can find the slope, m, to be -2.775 and the y-intercept, b, to be 657.55.
Substituting x = 85 into the equation y = mx + b, we get y = -2.775(85) + 657.55 ≈ 434.6.
Therefore, we can predict the number of shoppers to be approximately 435 when the temperature is 85°F.