Consider this scenario: The population of a city increased steadily over a six-year span. The following ordered pairs represent the recorded population for specific years:
(2000, 36000)
(2001, 39000)
(2003, 46000)
(2006, 60000)
Use linear regression to determine the function where the population depends on the year, with three decimal places of accuracy.
State the dependent variable and explain its meaning in the context of the problem.
Identify the correlation coefficient and explain what it tells you about the relationship.