Mason Office Services color copies for various customers. The company has gathered the following data:

Month # Copies Copy Department Costs

July 17,000 $1,445

August 21,250 1,685

September 22,950 1,785

October 18,700 1,530

November 20,400 1,615

December 25,500 2,040

Required:

(a) Enter the above data onto an Excel worksheet. Then, using the High-Low method, build the applicable regression equation, and

(i) Solve for f.

(ii) Solve for v

(iii) Estimate Copy Department Costs, assuming the number of copies is 23,000.

(b) On the same worksheet, using Excels Least Squares Regression application,

(i) Solve for f.

(ii) Solve for v.

(iii) Estimate Copy Department Costs, assuming the number of copies is 23,000.

(iv) Based on the r² measure (coefficient of determination), explain what it indicates about how accurate (or inaccurate) the Least Squares equation is at predicting total costs.