How Do You Use a Scatter Plot to Find a Line of Fit?

Note:

A line-of-fit is a line that summarizes the trend in a set of data. In this tutorial, you'll see how to graph data on a coordinate plane and draw a line-of-fit for that data. Check it out!

Keywords:

problem
data
graph
plot
scatter
scatter plot
line of fit
fit
correlation
draw line of fit

Background Tutorials

Find and position integers and other rational numbers on a horizontal or vertical number line diagram; find and position pairs of integers and other rational numbers on a coordinate plane.
- How Do You Plot Points in the Coordinate Plane?
  
  Knowing how to plot ordered pairs is an essential part of graphing functions. In this tutorial, you'll see how to take an ordered pair and plot it on the coordinate plane. Take a look!
Use similar triangles to explain why the slope m is the same between any two distinct points on a non-vertical line in the coordinate plane; derive the equation y = mx for a line through the origin and the equation y = mx + b for a line intercepting the vertical axis at b.
- What Does the Slope of a Line Mean?
  
  You can't learn about linear equations without learning about slope. The slope of a line is the steepness of the line. There are many ways to think about slope. Slope is the rise over the run, the change in 'y' over the change in 'x', or the gradient of a line. Check out this tutorial to learn about slope!
Construct and interpret scatter plots for bivariate measurement data to investigate patterns of association between two quantities. Describe patterns such as clustering, outliers, positive or negative association, linear association, and nonlinear association.
- How Do You Use a Scatter Plot to Find a Positive Correlation?
  
  Got a bunch of data? Trying to figure out if there is a positive, negative, or no correlation? Draw a scatter plot! This tutorial takes you through the steps of creating a scatter plot, drawing a line-of-fit, and determining the correlation, if any. Take a look!
- What's Positive Correlation?
  
  Looking at a line-of-fit on a scatter plot? Does that line have a positive slope? If so, your data shows a positive correlation! Learn about positive correlation by watching this tutorial.