Question

A survey wanted to determine if there was a relationship between the number of joggers who used a local park for exercise and the temperature outside. The data in the table display their findings.Use graphing technology to create a scatter plot of the data.What is the slope of the line of best fit and what does it mean in this context? Is it realistic?

Answer 1

Step 1

In order to find the slope of the line of the best fit, we must graph the points given.

Step 2

From the image above we can conclude that the equation of the line is;

`y=0.410045x-2.8757`

The slope is, therefore;

`0.410045`

The Slope (or Gradient) we call m, represents the change in y-value per unit change in x-value. In the case of this survey, the slope represents the increase in the number of joggers per degree rise in temperature.

From the calculated slope, there are about 0.4 more joggers for every degree rise in temperature. Using whole numbers to represent this, we can multiply the slope by 5:

`0.4*5=2`

Therefore, there are 2 more joggers for every 5°F increase in temperature.