No tortilla chip lover likes soggy chips, so it is important to find characteristics of the production process that produce chips with an appealing texture. The accompanying data on x 5 frying time (in seconds) and y 5 moisture content (%) appeared in the paper, “Thermal and Physical Properties of Tortilla Chips as a Function of Frying Time” (Journal of Food Processing and Preservation [1995]: 175–189):
Frying time (x): 5 10 15 20 25 30 45 60 Moisture content (y): 16.3 9. 8.1 4.2 3.4 2.9 1.9 1.3

a. Construct a scatterplot of these data. Does the relationship between moisture content and frying time appear to be linear?

b. Transform the y values using y 5 log(y) and construct a scatterplot of the (x, y) pairs. Does this scatterplot look more nearly linear than the one in Part (a)?

c. Find the equation of the least-squares line that describes the relationship between y and x.

d. Use the least-squares line from Part

(c) to predict moisture content for a frying time of 35 minutes.