Lesson 4

Discover

 

Try This 1

 

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In this part of the world, summer days have more hours of daylight and winter days have fewer hours of daylight. But does the number of hours of daylight follow a particular pattern? Consider the following information.

 

Date	Hours of Daylight in Medicine Hat
January 31	9.1
February 28	10.7
March 31	12.7
April 30	14.5
May 31	15.8
June 30	16.1
July 31	15.1
August 31	13.3
September 30	11.5
October 31	9.7
November 30	8.2
December 31	7.9

1.  
   1. Explain any patterns you see from the chart about daylight hours.
   2. What do you think the data will be like in the following year?
2.  
   1. Create a scatter plot of this data with the month on the x-axis and the hours of daylight on the y-axis.
   2. Draw a curve of best fit for the data.
   3. How would you describe the shape of your curve of best fit? Explain.
   4. How well does the curve of best fit represent your points?
3. Assume the data followed the same pattern and continued for multiple years. Estimate the period, amplitude, and midline. What does each period, amplitude, and midline represent in the context of the given data?

Save your responses in your course folder.

 

Share 1

 

With a partner or in a group, discuss the following questions based on your graphs created in Try This 1.

1. Is it reasonable to use the curve of best fit to predict the hours of daylight on February 19 of this year? How about February 19 seven years from now?
2. When graphing the data, you assumed each month was the same length, but this is not true. Comment on how much you expect this simplification to affect your graph.

If required, save a record of your discussion in your course folder.