Name:

Line of Best Fit or Line of Regression

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=82

Answer the following questions right on this page, remember to save often so you don’t lose any of your work. You may
include pictures if you need to support or clarify your points. Make sure to use complete sentences and answer the
question completely.

Getting to Know the Line of Fit or Regression Line

1. Plot one point and then click SHOW LINE. Why do you think a line is not graphed?

2. CLEAR the graph and plot two points that have whole number coordinates.
• See if you can find an equation for the line through these two points. Write your equation here:

• Click SHOW LINE. Compare the equation for the line drawn to the equation you calculated. Explain and resolve
any differences.

3. CLEAR the graph and plot 3 points. Think about a line that "fits" these three points as closely as possible.

• Is it possible for a single straight line to contain all three of the points you plotted?

• On your own paper, sketch a line that you think best fits the three points.

• Click SHOW LINE. Do you think that the line graphed fits the points well? How does it compare to the line you
drew?

4. CLEAR the graph and plot several points. Think about a line that best fits these points.

• Click SHOW LINE to see the "least-squares regression line" that fits these points.
• What do you think will happen to the regression line if you plot a new point? Try it and find out.
(NOTE: When you plot a new point without clearing the graph, then the new regression line is drawn
automatically.)
• Plot some more points and see what happens. Describe any patterns or trends that you see.

5. The line that the computer draws is called the least-squares regression line. It "fits" the data points according to criteria
that you will learn about later. Roughly, the least-squares regression line is the line that minimizes the squared "errors"
between the actual points and points on the line. This makes the line fit the points. Just to get a better feel for the
regression line, try the following tasks.
a) Plot 4 points so that the regression line is horizontal. Do this in several different ways. What happened?

b) Plot 3 points (not all on a line) so that the regression line is horizontal. What happened?

6. CLEAR the graph. Plot about 8 points that seem to be approximately on a line that has positive slope (slanted up as you
move left to right). Click on SHOW GRAPH to see the regression line.

• Does the line fit the points well?

• Does the equation show a positive slope?

7. Add an outlier point, that is, a point that does not at all follow the trend established by the other points.
• Describe what happens to the regression line. Explain.

• Grab this outlier and drag it around. Observe how the regression line changes. Describe any patterns that you
see.

8. As you have seen, an outlier can significantly affect the regression line. CLEAR the graph and begin again with about 8
points that seem to be approximately on a line that has positive slope.

• Experiment with dragging an outlier point to find locations of an outlier that cause the regression line to
drastically change slope.

• Find other locations of an outlier that cause the regression line to shift without changing slope. What did you
find out?

Now got to the following site:

http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap7/7.4/index.htm

The line of fit is found by finding the least distance from all the points to the line. If you look at each of the three
interactive (the three methods will change your interactive,) you will notice that it adds the distances of the five points and
gives you a sum. Your goal is to find the smallest distance. For all three models do the following:

1. Line up all the points right on the line. What do you notice?
a. Squares
b. Absolute Value
c. Distances

2. Move the points closer to the line, farther away from the line. What do you notice about the distances?
a. Squares
b. Absolute Value
c. Distances

3. Compare and contrast the three different methods for finding the line of best fit.
4. What method seems to be the most accurate? Why, what evidence do you have from exploring?