Q. 23 - Precalculus Enhanced with Graphing Utilities

Question

Maternal Age versus Down Syndrome A biologist would like to know how the age of the mother affects the incidence rate of Down syndrome. The data to the right represent the age of the mother and the incidence rate of Down syndrome per 1000 pregnancies. Draw a scatter diagram treating age of the mother as the independent variable. Would it make sense to find the line of best fit for these data? Why or why not 

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

The graph is shown below:

The trend is linear.

Step 1. Given information

The given data is:

Step 2. Chances of down syndrome

Let us consider  the data of the down syndrome related to mother's age as follows:

• When the mothers age is between (33-40) years the changes of down syndrome is very low.
• When the mothers age is between (40-45) years the changes of down syndrome increases rapidly. 

Step 3. Graph

Estimated risk of Down syndrome according to maternal age. 

The graph seems to be linear as the changes of the down syndrome grows slowly and then there is sudden increment after 40 years.