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Chapter 9
Overview
Linear regression is the process by which linear combinations of the
values of one or more independent variables are used to predict the
value of a dependent variable. For example, a dietician may want to
estimate the calorie requirement of a person given his or her height
and weight. A suitable equation may take the form:
Calories = a * Height + b * Weight + c
The constants a, b, and c may be estimated by measuring the height,
weight, and calorie intake of a representative collection of people, then
applying certain mathematical operations to this data.
Suppose that we sample n representative cases. The indepen-
dent