1.Problem Introduction

Consider the following: A medical researcher wants to determine the effect of pH (a measure of alkalinity or acidity, with pure water having a pH of 7) on the growth of a bacteria culture. The data provided to you below represents the measurements of different cultures (in thousands of bacteria) after 8 hours

pH

Number of Bacteria (thousands)

4

116

5

120

6

131

7

136

8

141

9

151

10

148

11

163

Create a scatter plot to represent the data:

Based on the data and your scatter plot, what do you think a good linear function would be to represent the data? Justify your decision as best as you can.

What is the formula for the line you found? How does it compare to your original guess for a linear function to represent the data?