Question: Shoreline Park in Mountain View, California, has kept close tabs on the number of patrons using the park since its opening in January 1993. For the first six months of 2013, the following figures were recorded:
Month Number of Patrons
January 130
February 183
March 285
April 640
May 1,876
June 2,550
a. Draw a graph of these six data points. Assume that January = period 1, February = period 2, and so on. Using a ruler, "eyeball" the best straight-line fit of the data. Estimate the slope and intercept from your graph.
b. Compute the exact values of the intercept a and the slope b from the regression equations.
c. What are the forecasts obtained for July through December 2013 from the regression equation determined in part (b)?
d. Comment on the results you obtained in part (c). Specifically, how confident would you be about the accuracy of the forecasts that you obtained?