Introduction to Fitting Linear Models to Data

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Draw and interpret scatter plots.
  • Find the line of best fit.
  • Distinguish between linear and nonlinear relations.
  • Use a linear model to make predictions.

A professor is attempting to identify trends among final exam scores. His class has a mixture of students, so he wonders if there is any relationship between age and final exam scores. One way for him to analyze the scores is by creating a diagram that relates the age of each student to the exam score received. In this section, we will examine one such diagram known as a scatter plot.