Carbon Dioxide Problem: Global warming is caused in part by the increase in the

Chapter 8, Problem R.4

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Carbon Dioxide Problem: Global warming is caused in part by the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Suppose that the concentrations in the table were measured monthly over a period of two years. The concentration of carbon dioxide, y, is measured in parts per million (ppm), and Figure 8-5g x is the number of months. a. Explain why a linear or an exponential function of the form y = abx might fit the data shown in Figure 8-5h reasonably well, but why an untranslated power function or a logarithmic function would not. both functions on a scatter plot of the data. Show that both functions give close to the actual concentration for x = 13 months but yield a significantly different concentration if you extrapolate to 20 years. c. Make a residual plot using the exponential function. Sketch the result. How do you interpret the residual plot in terms of trends in the real world that the exponential function does not account for?