Comment on Activity 2

A straight line through the points for 1991 and 2002 comes reasonably close to all the other points. The slope `m` of the line through these points is

`(1457-1586)/(1990-1997)~~-11.7`.

Using a point-slope form, we find that an equation of the line through our two points is `y=-11.7t+24text[,]881 text(.)`

Check   If we substitute `t=1991`, we see that `y` is approximately `1586`, as we should. For 1995, we get approximately `1539`. How does that compare with the data?