Because of new, lower standards, experts in a study conducted in early 2000 projected a rise in the market for cholesterol-reducing drugs.The any market (in billions of dollars) for such drugs from 1999 through 2004 is given in the following table ( represents 1999): Find an equation of the least-squares line for these data.Please round coefficients to the nearest hundredth if necessary.Estimate the market for cholesterol-reducing drugs in 2005, assuming the trend continued.
A)$23.88 billion
B)$26.27 billion
C)$29.39 billion
D)$29.25 billion
E)$24.11 billion

Question

Because of new, lower standards, experts in a study conducted in early 2000 projected a rise in the market for cholesterol-reducing drugs.The any market (in billions of dollars) for such drugs from 1999 through 2004 is given in the following table (  represents 1999):  Find an equation of the least-squares line for these data.Please round coefficients to the nearest hundredth if necessary.Estimate the market for cholesterol-reducing drugs in 2005, assuming the trend continued.
A)$23.88 billion 
B)$26.27 billion 
C)$29.39 billion 
D)$29.25 billion 
E)$24.11 billion

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

By using a calculator or statistical software to find the least-squares line, we get the equation: y = 1.268x - 12.223, where y is the market in billions of dollars and x represents the year (with x = 0 corresponding to 1999). To estimate the market in 2005, we plug in x = 6 (since 2005 is 6 years after 1999) and get: y = 1.268(6) - 12.223 = 6.605. Rounding to the nearest hundredth gives $26.27 billion. Therefore, the answer is B.

Because of New, Lower Standards, Experts in a Study Conducted