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During a family picnic, Reynold records how many sandwiches and how much potato salad each person eats. His data is shown on the scatter plot below.

The scatter plot with 7 data points shows the amount of potato salad eaten in cups on the vertical axis and the number of sandwiches eaten on the horizontal axis. The line of fit starts at (0, 2) and slopes down to reach (2.5, 0).

The line is the line of best fit for the data.

What does the y-intercept of the line represent?

A. People who do not eat any sandwiches will probably eat about 2 cups of potato salad.

B. People who do not eat any potato salad will probably eat about 2 sandwiches.

C. Each person eats on average about 2 cups of potato salad.

D. Each sandwich a person eats reduces the amount of potato salad eaten by about 2 cups.

Answer :

To solve the problem, let's understand what the y-intercept of a line of best fit represents in the context of this scatter plot.

A line of best fit is used to represent the relationship between two variables in a scatter plot. Here, we're looking at the number of sandwiches eaten and the amount of potato salad eaten (in cups).

The y-intercept of a line in the context of a graph is the point where the line crosses the y-axis, which is when the x-value (in this case, the number of sandwiches eaten) is 0.

In the given scatter plot, the line of best fit starts at the point (0, 2).

This means:

  • When the number of sandwiches eaten is 0, the y-value, which represents the amount of potato salad eaten, is 2 cups.

This interpretation is clearly explained in option A:

A. People who do not eat any sandwiches will probably eat about 2 cups of potato salad.

Therefore, in the context of the scatter plot, the y-intercept suggests that if someone does not eat any sandwiches, they are expected to eat approximately 2 cups of potato salad.

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