Suppose that the longevity (or life span) of mammals is something we have a good deal of information about and typically understand well, but the gestation period (or the length of pregnancy) of mammals is less clear.We therefore want to think about how we might be able to predict or explain gestation period based on longevity, especially if we uncover a new species of mammal. The scatter-plot below shows the relationship between longevity (measured in years) and gestation (measured in days) for a sample of 38 mammals.The correlation between gestation and longevity is r = 0.59.The regression equation to predict gestation based on longevity is:Predicted gestation = 19.66 + 12.68 (longevity).

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