Given the information in Exercise 15.13, determine the linear regression equation describing January– May burned acreage in Florida as a function of January– May rainfall in the state, then identify and interpret the slope, the coefficient of correlation, and the coefficient of determination. At the 0.10 level of significance, could the population slope and the population coefficient of correlation be zero? Determine the 90% confidence interval for the population slope.
In exercise
The Florida ecosystem is heavily reliant on wet and dry seasons, and is particularly dependent on the winter and spring rainfall that helps reduce damage due to wildfires. Data file XR15013 lists the number of acres burned and the number of inches of rainfall during January–May for 1988–2000. Given these data, determine the least-squares equation for predicting acreage burned during the January–May period as a function of rainfall during that period, then interpret its slope.