Gary saw a video on the internet in which dropping mint candies into bottles of soda pop caused the soda pop to spurt immediately from the bottle. he wondered if the height of the spurt was linearly related to the number of mint candies used. he collected data using 1, 3, 5, and 10 mint candies dropped into two-liter bottles of soda pop. the height of the spurt was measured in centimeters. each quantity of mint candies was tried three times. the data is shown in the table.

using the mean of the data points for 3 and 10, what is the best interpretation of the y-intercept in context of this problem?

a) the y-intercept is (0, −8.1). this means that if no mint candies are dropped into the bottle of soda pop, the height of the spurt is −8.1 cm. this makes sense within the context of the problem.
b) the y-intercept is (0, −8.1). this means that if no mint candies are dropped into the bottle of soda pop, the height of the spurt is −8.1 cm. this does not make sense within the context of the problem.
c) the y-intercept is (0, −27.6). this means that if no mint candies are dropped into the bottle of soda pop, the height of the spurt is −27.6 cm. this makes sense within the context of the problem.
d) the y-intercept is (0, −27.6). this means that if no mint candies are dropped into the bottle of soda pop, the height of the spurt is −27.6 cm. this does not make sense within the context of the problem.