Additional exercise

7.3 The line of best fit

1 Miss Lily recorded the number of hours (x) that her students in her tutor group studied for an
exam and their exam grade (y).

x 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

y 20 20 30 60 70 70

a Write down the mean number of hours and the mean exam grade.

b Write down the equation of the line of best fit.

c Construct a scatterplot and draw the line of best fit through the mean point.

d Use your diagram to find how long a student should study to aim for 100%.

2 Yuyu measures the height of the classroom plant every week for six weeks

Age (x weeks) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Height (y cm) 2.4 4.3 5.0 6.9 9.1 11.4 13.5

a Find the mean age and mean height.

b Write down the equation of the regression line.

c Show the data and line of best fit on a scatterplot.

d Find the height of the plant after 3.5 weeks.

e Find the height of the plant after 18 weeks. Is this a sensible answer?

3 David’s tech store sells used computers. The age (x) in years and the selling price (y) in
hundreds of dollars is show in the table.

x 1 1 2 3 4 4 5 5.5 7 7

y 6 7 5 8 4 6 6 4 2 4

a Find the r value. What does this tell you about the age and price of David’s computers.

b Write down the equation of the regression line.

c Show the data and line of best fit on a scatterplot.

d Find the price of a 2.5-year-old computer.

e Why can’t you use the regression equation to predict the price of a 20-year-old computer?

4 The graph shows one student’s approximation of the best-fitting

line for the data in the scatterplot. Describe an the error in the
student’s work.

© Oxford University Press 2019 Additional exercise 1

 Additional exercise

Answers

1 a Mean number of hours = 1.65 and the mean exam grade = 55.9.

b y 23.8 x + 16.7
=

d 3.5 hours

2 a Mean age = 3 weeks, mean height = 7.51cm.

b=y 1
  .99 + 1
  .84 x.

d The height after 3.5 weeks: y = 1 + (1.843  3.5  8.44

  .985   × )= cm

e y= 1 + (1.843 1
 .985   )= 35.2 cm
× 8  

It would not be sensible to predict the height after 18 weeks from this equation – we don’t
know whether the relationship will continue to be linear. The process of trying to predict a
value from outside the range of your data is called extrapolation.

3 a r = −0.608 . There is a moderate, neagtive correlation between the age of a computer and
the price. As the age of a computer increases, the price decreases.

b=y 7.37 − 0.471x

© Oxford University Press 2019 2

 Additional exercise

d y = 7.37 − ( 0.471 × 2.5) = 6.19 . A 2.5-year-old computer costs $619.

e Predicting outside of the known domain is called extrapolation and is unreliable.

4 The line is drawn too low. The sum of the residuals above the line should be close to the sum of
residuals below the line.

© Oxford University Press 2019 3