Suppose a set of data about the spread (in hundreds of acres) of a food-borne bacteria (after t weeks) in lettuce has the following percentage rates of change: 0.9%, 1.3%, 1.1%, 1.0%, 1.3%, 1.0%; and the following average rates of change: 2.9, 2.4, 3.7, 3.1, 3.6, 3.2. Based only on the information given, and without doing any calculations, what type of model would you use? Why? (NOTE THAT the information given is not the actual data set. I have calculated the two types of rate of change for you. You should NOT BE CALCULATING ANYTHING!) Comment:What tells you that the relation is best fit by a linear model? Use principles about what kinds of functions have consistency in which types of rates of change?

The type of model that would be used is sinusoidal model and this is because there is periodic change in the values given ( i.e the rate of changes given )

For percentage rate of changes :

starting from 0.9% there is an increase to 1.3% then a decrease to 1.1% and a further decrease to 1% before an increase to 1.3% and another decrease to 1%

For Average rate of changes:

starting from 2.9 there is a decrease to 2.4, then an increase to 3.7 and another decrease to 3.1 followed by an increase to 3.6 and a decrease back to 3.2

This relation ( sinusoidal model ) is best suited for a linear model because there is a periodic rate of change in the functions

The kind of function that have consistency in the period rate of change is the Average rate of changes