Find the equation for the least squares regression line of the data described below.

A software developer is looking for ways to predict how many bugs will appear in future projects. She used a bug-tracking database to analyze several recent projects.
From the database, she recorded the number of lines of code for each project, x. She also looked up the number of bugs that had been found in each project's code, y.
Lines of code Bugs
2,292 149
7,315 339
11,518 357
13,977 445
19,877 380
Round your answers to the nearest thousandth.
y=
x+

1 answer

To find the equation for the least squares regression line \( y = mx + b \), where \( m \) is the slope and \( b \) is the y-intercept, we need to calculate the values of \( m \) and \( b \) using the provided data. Let’s calculate it step by step:

Step 1: Calculate necessary sums

  1. Data points: \[ (x_1, y_1) = (2292, 149) \ (x_2, y_2) = (7315, 339) \ (x_3, y_3) = (11518, 357) \ (x_4, y_4) = (13977, 445) \ (x_5, y_5) = (19877, 380) \]

  2. Calculate sums: \[ n = 5 \ \sum x = 2292 + 7315 + 11518 + 13977 + 19877 = 43679 \ \sum y = 149 + 339 + 357 + 445 + 380 = 1670 \ \sum xy = (2292 \cdot 149) + (7315 \cdot 339) + (11518 \cdot 357) + (13977 \cdot 445) + (19877 \cdot 380) = 826878 + 2486605 + 4112596 + 6205655 + 7552860 = 18686694 \ \sum x^2 = 2292^2 + 7315^2 + 11518^2 + 13977^2 + 19877^2 = 5240064 + 53462225 + 132490324 + 195496729 + 394160129 = 777913771 \]

Step 2: Compute the slope \( m \) and intercept \( b \)

Using the formulas: \[ m = \frac{n \sum xy - \sum x \sum y}{n \sum x^2 - (\sum x)^2} \] \[ b = \frac{\sum y - m \sum x}{n} \]

We can now plug in our calculated sums.

  1. Compute \( m \): \[ m = \frac{5 \cdot 18686694 - 43679 \cdot 1670}{5 \cdot 777913771 - (43679)^2} \] \[ m = \frac{93433470 - 72816630}{3889568855 - 1913400641} \] \[ m = \frac{20616840}{1976168214} \approx 0.0104 \]

  2. Compute \( b \): \[ b = \frac{1670 - 0.0104 \cdot 43679}{5} \] \[ b = \frac{1670 - 454.43}{5} \] \[ b = \frac{1215.57}{5} \approx 243.114 \]

Final Equation

Thus, the least squares regression line (rounded to the nearest thousandth) is: \[ y = 0.010x + 243.114 \]

So, the final answer is: \[ y = 0.010x + 243.114 \]