A general rule for computing a person's weight is as follows: For a female, multiply the height in inches by 3:5 and subtract 108; for a male, multiply the height in inches by 4.0 and subtract 128. If the person is small bone-structured, adjust this computation by subtracting 10%; for a large bone-structured person, add 10%. No adjustment is made for an average-size person. Gather data on the weight versus height of people of differing age, size, and gender. Using Equation (3.4), fit a straight line to your data for males and another straight line to your data for females. What are the slopes and intercepts of those lines? How do the results compare with the general rule?

Equation 3.4

MI m m @ x +b2 * = 2 xy i=l i=l i=l m yi m a xi + mb = i=l izl