The management of a chain of fast-food restaurants wants to investigate the relationship between the daily sales volume (in dollars) of a company restaurant and the number of competitor restaurants within a 1-mile radius. The following data have been collected:

Number of Competitors

Within 1 Mile Sales ($)

1 ........3600

1 ........3300

2 ........3100

3 ........2900

3 ........2700

4 ........2500

5 ........2300

5 ........2000

a. Develop the least-squares estimated regression equation that relates daily sales volume to the number of competitor restaurants within a 1-mile radius.

b. Use the estimated regression equation developed in part (a) to forecast the daily sales volume for a particular company restaurant that has four competitors within a 1-mile radius.