Line of Best Fit

Think about iconLandline telephoneThink back to the scatterplot presented in the Introduction. It presented data on the number of households in a local community that do not maintain a landline. A landline telephone must be connected to a network, using wire. Many households in the United States have landline telephones. A cellular telephone maintains a wireless connection to a network.

In the year 2000, cell phones began rising in popularity. Some households have decided to only maintain cell phone service, instead of having a landline in their households. The scatterplot shows data that represents the number of households in a local community that do not maintain a landline (Note: x = 0 represents the year 2000).

What patterns do you notice? How would you describe the trend of the data? Can you estimate the line that best fits the data?


The number of households in a local community that do not maintain a landline. (x=0 represents the year 2000)