The following table gives the number of families under the poverty level in the U.S. in recent years.

a. Find a linear equation for the number of families below poverty level (in thousands) in terms of , the number of years since 2000, using the data for 2000 and 2008.

b. Repeat part a, using the data for 2004 and 2008.

c. Find the equation of the least squares line using all the data. Then plot the data and the three lines from parts a–c on a graphing calculator.

d. Discuss which of the three lines found in parts a–c best describes the data, as well as to what extent a linear model accurately describes the data.

e. Calculate the correlation coefficient.

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Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Families Below Poverty Level (in thousands) 6400 6813 7229 7607 7623 7657 7668 7835 8147