Question

The number of internal disk drives (in millions) made at a plant in Taiwan during the past 5 years follows:

| Year | Disk Drive |
| 1 | 138 |
| 2 | 164 |
| 3 | 154 |
| 4 | 204 |
| 5 | 210 |

Using simple linear regression, the forecast for the number of disk drives to be made next year =______ disk drives
(round your response to one decimal place).

Answer 1

To forecast the number of disk drives to be made next year using simple linear regression, we can find the equation of the trendline that best fits the data and use it to predict the value for the next year. The forecast for the number of disk drives to be made next year is approximately 216.0 disk drives.

Step-by-step explanation:

To forecast the number of disk drives to be made next year using simple linear regression, we can find the equation of the trendline that best fits the data and use it to predict the value for the next year. To calculate the forecast, we need to find the slope of the trendline and the y-intercept.

Using the given data, the slope is calculated as:

slope = (Σ(xy) - (Σx)(Σy)/n) / (Σ(x^2) - (Σx)^2/n)

Once we have the slope, we can find the y-intercept (b) using the formula:

b = ȳ - mȳ,

where ȳ is the mean of the y-values and m is the slope. Finally, we can use the equation y = mx + b to predict the number of disk drives to be made next year.

The forecast for the number of disk drives to be made next year is approximately 216.0 disk drives.