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Eleanor Quick
Mr. Kiker
Pre-Cal 5th
9/3/14

The Regression Report

The world is evolving and changing every second of every day. Some of these changes are good
and some of them are bad. One of the major concerns in the world right now is global warming
and climate change. To study this phenomenon, I decided to research Australia and look at the
relationship between rain and temperature over decades. By doing that, people can see if there is
any drastic changes that occurred over the years that would lead people to believe climate change
is in fact happening. Of course just one piece of data is not going to prove this phenomenon to be
true or false. This data would be relevant to many different people around the world. Scientists
who study the earths climate can use this data to inform the general public about changes in the
earths climate.

With my data, I found that the cubic parent function fits best with my points. The reason it fits
best with my data is because the r

your

value is closest to one out of all of the parent functions. If

value is one, it is 100% accurate. My

parent function had about an 89% accuracy.

value was .8901481347, meaning the

2
3

The regression equation for the cubic function is y=a x +b x +cx +d . With my points

substituted in the equation, it becomes

again, the cubic parent function best fits my data because the

r2

y=.0776 x 4.1849 x +74.2814 x411.674 . Once

r2

value is closest to one. The

value describes the correlation between my two data points because the regression line

through my points is not quite 100% accurate but almost, just like how my

value is not

100% accurate rather 89%.

In my scatter plot, there is not a y intercept. This is because the coolest temperature in Australia
is around 15 degrees Celsius. For it to have a y intercept, one of the averages would have to be 0
degrees, which did not occur in my data. My two data points are pretty constant but then rise
steeply towards the end. This could be because Australia is in the southern hemisphere so the
seasons are opposite to the northern hemisphere. The temperature and rain fall increases toward
the end of the graph, representing the later months of the year, which is their summer. In the
northern hemisphere most countries would experience this increase in the middle months during
the summer and decrease or be constant in the winter. The reason the slope increases very steeply
is also because as rainfall increases, the temperature does the same so they are directly related.

Based on my equation for this data, if my X value was 16 (Temperature), my Y value would be
23.386 (Rain Fall). If X value was 18.3, then my Y value would be 21.83. Finally if my X value
was 12.5, my Y value would be 14.534.

Many different careers around the world would use this data in their job. In particular,
meteorologists because they study past and present weather patterns and help the public stay
informed on the weather to come. They are very relevant in society because they help keep many
people safe by warning them about dangerous conditions in their area. Without them, many
people might not be alive today. They also inform the public daily about non-life treating
weather such as rain or hot temperatures so we can know what to wear and what to be aware of.

Based on the data collected, I can conclude that the temperature and rainfall amounts are directly
related in Australia. From the graph, you can see as rain fall goes up, so does temperature and as
it goes down, temperature decreases. This will not be the case for all countries thought because
where the country is located in the world has a strong effect on the relationship between the two

variables.

Monthly Tempertaure vs. Rain in Australia From 1960-2009

100
90
80
70
60
Rain

Rain vs. Temperature

50

Regression

40
30
20
10
0
12

14

16

18

20

22

Tempterature

24

26

28

30

Works Cited
"Climate Change Knowledge Portal 2.0." Climate Change Knowledge Portal 2.0. The World Bank
Group, 2014. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://sdwebx.worldbank.org/climateportal/index.cfm?
page=country_historical_climate&ThisRegion=Australia&ThisCCode=AUS>.

Frost, Jim. "Regression Analysis: How to Interpret the Constant (Y Intercept) | Minitab." Regression
Analysis: How to Interpret the Constant (Y Intercept) | Minitab. MiniTab, 11 July 2013. Web. 10
Sept. 2014. <http://blog.minitab.com/blog/adventures-in-statistics/regression-analysis-how-tointerpret-the-constant-y-intercept>.