Now that we have talked about linear regression, we’ve reached a level of sophistication use math to do some basis analysis. Search the internet for some data that is either relevant to your major or just interesting for its own sake. Make sure that the data contains a pair of numerical variables which can be reasonably ordered. If you don’t know where to start to look for such data, consider skimming these data sources to get ideas.
Once you find some data you’d like to use, copy or transcribe it into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet† and plot the data: click and drag to select the data and then click “Insert” → “Charts” → “Scatter” to insert a scatterplot of the data. Next fit a linear model to the data: select the scatter plot points, then click “Chart Design” → “Add Chart Element” → “Trendline” → “Linear”. Excel calls this regression line a trendline. Double-clicking on the trendline, an options panel will open; select the option to “Display Equation on Chart”.
After creating and customizing your chart in Excel, copy it over to a Microsoft Word document to more easily add some explanation and analysis and to more easily print. Save your files for this assignment since we’ll be revisiting it later in the term, and be sure to include a link to the source of your data as a Reference in your report.
My hope is that by keeping this assignment simple with only a few requirements, you’re afforded some time to dig-in to finding data online that interests you, and time to play in Excel and Word to discover their capabilities.
Deliverable
Hand the instructor a printed copy of your report fit to a single page of paper. It should contain a plot of the data, the trendline, and the trendline’s equation, along with any necessary explanation of your data and some analysis of you the trendline. Design your chart to be clean and self-contained, and design your report to be pleasant to read. For your analysis address the following questions: Does the trendline tell you if the data is increasing or decreasing overall? What does the slope of the formula for you model mean in the context of your data? Do you think a linear function an appropriate choice of model for your data? What does your linear model predict about the future of the phenomenon your data measures?