Aidan Hogan

The Regression Project Report

Boys Age vs Average Height at that Age
When am I going to get taller? I remember asking my dad that question many times in middle school,
and I remember the doubt creeping into his voice every year, when he said someday. If only he had a
graph, and statistics like the ones I made. I compared the statistics of a childs age to the average height
at that age I chose this because I was wondering if there was an average time or age of growth spurt
that would apply to all boys. This data would be relevant to anyone with a kid, pediatricians, anybody
with a vested interest in childs height, and would be relevant because children and there parents, would
want to know when they can maybe expect a growth spurt. Pediatricians would want this information
because they would want to know the average heights of children at different ages so that they could
compare all the children to each other.
Y=2.49x+30.25
This is a linear equation because it is simply Y=X there is no squaring going on so it is not quadratic,
there is only x being multiplied by 2.49, with a y intercept of 30.25.
In my graph the significance of this equation is that 30.25 represents the average height in inches of a
baby when it is born, while 2.49 represents the average number of inches the average boy will grow in
a year.
I would predict that for an x value of 17 we would have the y value of 72.58, an x value of 18 would
have the y value of 102.83, and an x value of 19 would have a y value of 133.08
R2=.994
with an R squared value of .994 we can almost always perfectly predict the next y value with any given
x value.
There are many careers that would use these statistics, pediatricians would use it maybe most of all to
look at how the height of their patients are compared to the norm of their age. This relationship could
directly correlate to health, and illness, based on stunted growth. Child therapists could use this statistic
because some traumatized children have stunted growth, this statistic could be just another pointer or
clue as to whether or not the child is traumatized. The relevance of these careers of pediatrician and
children's therapists are that our children s physical and mental health are in their hands, we need them
to be as prepared as possible. If they want a graph of children's heights at different ages than we should
definitely give it to them. These Pediatricians would be able to more effectively treat children and
understand the individual circumstances presented in any single child's case. With these they can more
effectively prescribe medicine, and understand the mentalities and situations of children.
Out of the data I have found I have concluded that a Childs age vs a Childs height at that age, are very
closely correlated. On this trend line, we could predict the next y value 99 percent of the time, which
means that there is not any significant growth spurts that occur in the majority of boys at the same age.
Every year it is plain to see that a boy can expect to grow 2.5 inches, now at any given year he may
grow significantly more or significantly less but from age 1-16 all of the boys who have growth spurts
early, and the ones who have it late, balance each other out, to create a graph where there no extreme
outliers.