Question

activity the line drawn for a scatter - plot may not always be the line of best fit. but you can change it to a line of best fit by adjusting its y - intercept and slope. in this activity, you will change lines to better fit the data. part a how could you change the slope and the y - intercept of the line in this graph to better fit the data? (hint: visualize what the best fit line would look like, and then describe how to transform the existing line to that one.)

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze data - point distribution

Observe that data - points are scattered around the line. The line seems to have a negative slope.

Step2: Adjust slope

If more data - points are above the line on the left - hand side and below on the right - hand side, increase the magnitude of the negative slope (make it steeper) to better fit the data. If the opposite is true, decrease the magnitude of the negative slope.

Step3: Adjust y - intercept

If the overall data - points are above the line, decrease the y - intercept. If they are below the line, increase the y - intercept. This will shift the line up or down to better fit the data.

Answer:

To change the slope, if more points are above the line on the left and below on the right, make the negative slope steeper; otherwise, make it less steep. To change the y - intercept, if points are generally above the line, decrease it; if below, increase it.