Eruptions appear to have a correlation between the duration of an eruption and the length of time before the next eruption. Suppose you collected the following data (in minutes) where x represents the duration of an eruption and y equals the time interval before the next eruption:
(1.80, 56) , (1.98, 59) , (2.37, 61) , (3.78, 79) , (4.30, 84) , (4.53, 89)
Use this data to predict the interval for the next eruption if the duration of the last one was 2.82 minutes
2006-07-28 11:06:33 · 2 answers · asked by Cablan9 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Plot your data on an x-y plot using the durations as the x-axis variable and the intervals as the y-axis variable. You'll find that the data points lie more or less on a straight line, which suggests that it might be valid to fit a straight line to the data points, using a least-squares approach to find the slope and intercept of the line that "best fit" the data. This is your regression line.
There are lots of ways to fit the regression. Many scientific calculators have this function built-in, as does Excel (and most other spreadsheets). There are also numerous on-line regression calculators available on the web. Do a search for "on-line regression" using your favorite search engine and you'll find them. One is given at as the source below.
Once you do this, you should find that the best fit line to the data is:
Interval = 11.72 * Duration + 34.69
You can then plug in the value of 2.82 minutes for the Duration to predict that the Interval 'till the next eruption should be 67.74 minutes.
2006-07-28 11:45:21 · answer #1 · answered by hfshaw 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I would say that anyone that goes to the trouble of solving this has a need for more in their life. This is a forum for questions.
2006-07-28 11:11:51 · answer #2 · answered by Sleeping Troll 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋