The "best fit" line

The simple linear regression model for a numeric response as a function of a numeric explanatory variable can be visualized on the corresponding scatterplot by a straight line. This is a "best fit" line that cuts through the data in a way that minimizes the distance between the line and the data points.

We might consider linear regression to be a specific example of a larger class of smooth models. The geom_smooth() function allows you to draw such models over a scatterplot of the data itself. This technique is known as visualizing the model in the data space. The method argument to geom_smooth() allows you to specify what class of smooth model you want to see. Since we are exploring linear models, we'll set this argument to the value "lm".

Note that geom_smooth() also takes an se argument that controls the standard error, which we will ignore for now.

Create a scatterplot of body weight as a function of height for all individuals in the bdims dataset with a simple linear model plotted over the data.

Exercise

The "best fit" line

Instructions