Real-Life Math
A body has been discovered on the side of a mountain. It seems to
have been there several days. The growth stage of insects in the body will
help you estimate how long the body has been there.
For your estimate,
you need to know the temperature of the crime scene. This is because insects
grow at different rates depending on the temperature.
You can't
know what the temperature was for the past few days. After all, no one was
there with a thermometer. However, you can extrapolate from weather records.
A
weather station is 3.75 miles away. The station is 2,000 feet lower than the
crime scene.
To find out what correlation, if any, there is between
the two locations, you run a temperature recorder at the crime scene for three
weeks after the body has been removed. You're going to compare these
temperatures to the ones recorded at the weather station over the same time
period.
Using regression analysis, a complicated system for finding
correlations, you find there is a correlation. If you take the temperature
of the crime scene, subtract 2.5 and multiply by 1.16, you get the temperature
at the weather station.
- If the temperature is 72 F at the crime scene, what would you expect the
temperature at the weather station to be?
- What would the formula be to calculate the temperature at the crime scene,
if you have the temperature for the weather station?
- If the weather station temperature is 45 F, what would you expect the
crime scene temperature to be?
Bonus: Try graphing your results.