How would an auditor ascertain what information should be used to determine the values of a and b in question 10-9? Assuming the information is available, how would the values of a and b be determined ?

Question 10-9:

Using simple linear regression, define each term for the formulation Y = a + bX. Use this formula to determine February’s expected value of repair and maintenance expense for a rock crusher if there is \($2,000\) of repairs and maintenance monthly regardless of volume. The expense is expected to increase \($12\) for every hour of actual machine operating time. There are 180 hours of rock-crushing machine hours in February.