Question

a swim coach made a table and scatterplot to show the number of lessons his students attended as a linear function of their age in years.
swim lessons
age (years) 5 6 8 11 13 14 16 17 18 20
number of lessons 17 16 15 11 10 7 7 6 5 4
the swim coach takes on a student who is 23 years old. what is the best prediction of the number of lessons this student will attend?
5
2
6
1

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze the trend

Looking at the scatter - plot and the table, as the age (x) increases, the number of lessons (y) decreases. The relationship seems to be linear.

Step2: Estimate the trend continuation

From the given data points: at age 20, the number of lessons is 4. The trend of decrease is approximately 1 - 2 lessons per 2 - 3 years of age increase. If we consider the general downward trend, for an age of 23 (3 years more than 20), and assuming a continuation of the trend (since the relationship is modeled as linear), the number of lessons should be less than 4. Among the options, 2 is the most reasonable estimate as 5 and 6 are higher than the value at age 20 and 1 is too low considering the gradual decrease pattern.

Answer:

2