How do you fit a line to a graph?

[Guest]

I am trying to fit a line to my graph meaning I need a straight line that
goes through an x y scatter graph and is close to all the points. IF anyone
has any clue about what im talking about please help???

 

[Guest]

I am trying to fit a line to my graph meaning I need a straight line that
goes through an x y scatter graph and is close to all the points. IF anyone
has any clue about what im talking about please help???

There are multiple approaches.

1) you can just graph your x,y scatter data. Then right click on one of
the data points on the chart and select "add trendline". Select a
linear trendline and it will magically appear! You can then right click
on your new trendline, tell it to "format" and on the "options" tab tell
it to display the equation it generated if you wish.

2) Use the SLOPE() and INTERCEPT() functions to create constants and
then use them in the y=mx+b form of the equation of a line to create a
third column of data which is your straight line. Then just plot that
in the normal manner. You can then also use the CORREL() function to
measure how closely your line matches the Y data points.

Good luck...

Bill