The management of a chain of fast-food restaurants wants to investigate the relationship between the daily sales volume (in dollars) of a company restaurant and the number of competitor restaurants within a 1-mile radius. The following data have been collected:
Number of Competitors
Within 1 Mile Sales ($)
1 ........................3600
1 ....................3300
2 ....................3100
3 ....................2900
3 ....................2700
4 ....................2500
5 ....................2300
5 ....................2000
a. Develop the least-squares estimated regression equation that relates daily sales volume to the number of competitor restaurants within a 1-mile radius.
b. Use the estimated regression equation developed in part (a) to forecast the daily sales volume for a particular company restaurant that has four competitors within a 1-mile radius.