Medicare Beneficiary Spending Out-of-pocket spending projections for a typ...

Medicare Beneficiary Spending Out-of-pocket spending projections for a typical Medicare beneficiary as a share of his or her income are given in the table.

Let x = 0 represent 1990, so that x = 8 represents 1998. Use a graphing calculator to do the following.

(a) Plot the data.

(b) Find a quadratic function to model the data.

(c) Find a cubic function to model the data.

(d) Graph each function in the same viewing window as the data.

(e) Compare the two functions. Which is a better fit to the data?

(f) Would a linear model be appropriate for these data? Why or why not?