Tuesday, September 15, 2009

How to find a line of best fit on TI-84 Plus

Someone asked how to find a line of best fit on the graphing calculator, so I'm putting it on here... This is how I do it on my TI-84 Plus, but it's probably similar for everything else.

Linear Equation
To find the line of best fit for a linear equation, pretend we had the points: (-2, 5) (1, 11) (3,15)
Go to STAT > Edit... Under L1, enter all the x-coordinates. Under L2, enter all the y-coordinates. Then hit STAT > CALC > LinReg. Hit ENTER. You'll see something like this:

LinReg
y=ax+b
a=2
b=9
This means y=2x+9.

Quadratic Equation
Say you have a quadratic with these points: (-2, 3) (0,-5) (2, 11) (3, 28)
Go to STAT > Edit... Under L1, enter all the x-coordinates. Under L2, enter all the y-coordinates. Then hit STAT > CALC > QuadReg. Hit 2nd>1 (L1), then enter a comma, and then 2nd>2 (L2). Then hit ENTER. It will give you something like this:

QuadReg
y=ax²+bx+c
a=3
b=2
c=-5

This means that the equation is y=3x²+2x-5

Cubic Equation
For a cubic equation, enter the points. Pretend they're (-2, -8) (-1, -6) (0, -6) (1,4) (2, 36)
Go to STAT > Edit... Then enter all the x-coordinates under L1 and the y-coordinates under L2. Then hit STAT > CALC > CubicReg. Type 2nd>1 (L1), comma, then 2nd>2 (L2). Hit ENTER. You'll see something like this:

CubicReg
y=ax³+bx²+cx+d
a=2
b=5
c=3
d=-6

This means it's y=2x³+5x²+3x-6.

Good luck :)

4 comments:

  1. Nice work, Molly! How about a line (as opposed to a parabola or a cubic function)? Could you please label your post? Thanks!

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  2. Nice job! For labels, each post has exactly three labels:

    Your first name.
    The unit of study, e.g. Functions
    The type of post: either Scribe Post, Reflection, or On My Mind

    I fixed yours. Thanks again!

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