Sunspots have fascinated people for hundreds of years. (The first recordings of sunspots date from ancient Greece and China.) These dark spots on the sun seem to come and go, and for about 150 years astronomers have noted that there appears to be a cycle.
The data set sunspots on the DVD holds yearly average numbers of sunspots for the years 1701 to 2005. Find more information about sunspots at https://solarscience. msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml.
a) Make a time plot of the sunspot data.
b) With the help of a smoother, discuss the cycle that astronomers see.