Question

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture is concerned about the number of acres of farmland being withdrawn from farming. The department would like to propose new legislation to prevent this but would like to show the legisla- ture what would happen if it does not act. Dewey Compost, the department’s statistician, regresses the number of acres used for farming in the state on time 11949 5 year 12. Dewey finds the following:

Y^ 5 2.743 2 .027X

s_b =.0007   S_y|x =.013   r² =.89   s_x =16   X=29 n=63

(a) How strong is the relationship?

(b) If Y is in millions of acres, how many acres of farmland will be lost in the next 10 years if the legislature does not act and if past practices continue?

(c) How many acres will be used for farming in 2012? Place a 90% confidence interval around this estimate.

Answer 1