Up and Running Auto Shop is tracking their regular customers' data to see if there is a relationship between the life of a car's
engine and the number of times the oil is changed. The equation for the line of best fit for the data shown on the scatter plot is y = .4125x + .1576. What does .1576 represent in the equation? A) .1576 represents the expected longevity of the engine before any oil changes.
B) .1576 represents the expected longevity of the engine with one oil change.
C) .1576 represents the expected longevity increase of the engine each time the oil is changed.
D) .1576 represents the expected longevity of the engine each time the car is driven.
The equation has two variables, y (longevity of car engine) and x (number of times oil changed).
This falls into the slope-intercept form of a linear function,which is , where b is the y-intercept (or in other words, the value of y when x is 0).
Comparing our equation to the slope-intercept form of a linear function tells us that the value 0.1576 is the y-intercept.
<em>It means </em><em>0.1576</em><em> is the expected longevity of a car engine when x is 0 (number of oil changed is 0). </em>This is answer choice A.
