Robert Wadlow, a.k.a.
"The Giant of Illinois"
,
at the time of his death was the world's tallest man; he reached 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m)
in height and weighed 490 pounds.
The table below gives his height in meters for every year of his life (with additional data as well).
$$
\begin{array}{c|c}
\mbox {Age} \,\, x \,\, \mbox{ (years)} & \mbox{Height }\,\, y \,\, \mbox{ (meters)} \\ \hline
0 & 0.51\\
0.5 & 0.88\\
1 & 1.07\\
1.5 & 1.3\\
2 & 1.37\\
3 & 1.5\\
4 & 1.6\\
5 & 1.69\\
6 & 1.7\\
7 & 1.78\\
8 & 1.83\\
9 & 1.88\\
10 & 1.96\\
11 & 2.11\\
12 & 2.18\\
13 & 2.24\\
14 & 2.26\\
15 & 2.39\\
16 & 2.48\\
17 & 2.51\\
18 & 2.54\\
19 & 2.59\\
20 & 2.62\\
21 & 2.64\\
22.4 & 2.72\\
\end{array}
$$
(a). Draw a scatter diagram for these data points and
determine the line of best fit. (Round the coefficients
to the nearest hundredth.)
(b). Interpret the meaning of the slope of the line of best fit.
(c). Use the line of best fit from part (a) to estimate the
how tall Wadlow may have been had he lived to age 25 years.*
(*Important note: Making predictions outside of the range of a data set is called
extrapolation.
Extrapolating far outside of a data set
can lead to absurd predictions.)