Below is a table depicting the number of US citizens, in thousands, who earned a bachelor degree for each year since 2000. Year 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
Male 530 532 550 573 595 613 631 668 681
Female 708 712 742 775 804 826 855 895 918
Using the regression calculator or another tool of your choice to create a scatter plot of the data for men, where the independent variable is the year since 2000 and the dependent variable is the number of people (in thousands).

a. Often, social changes, such as education trends, show linear relationships. How well does a linear model fit the data in this problem? Justify your answer in terms of the scatterplots and in terms of the data that the regression calculator gives.

b. Using proper units, state the slopes for the functions M and F.
Slope of M:
Slope of F:

c. Explain what these slopes represent in terms of Americans earning bachelor degrees.