How Do You Draw A Line Of Best Fit

A line of best fit is a line that best "fits" the trend in a given dataset.

Line of best fit in Google Sheets

This tutorial provides a step-by-footstep case of how to create a line of best fit in Google Sheets.

Step 1: Create the Dataset

Outset, let'due south create a fake dataset to work with:

Step 2: Create a Scatterplot

Next, nosotros'll create a scatterplot to visualize the data.

First, highlight cellsA2:B11 equally follows:

Side by side, click theInsert tab then clickChart from the dropdown menu:

Google Sheets will automatically insert a scatterplot:

Stride 3: Add together the Line of All-time Fit

Next, double click anywhere on the scatterplot to bring upwardly theChart Editor window on the correct:

Next, clickSeries. Then, scroll down and check the box next toTrendline and change the line color to whatsoever you'd like. We'll choose Red. For Label, cullUse Equation and and so cheque the box next toShow R² .

Add a line of best fit in Google Sheets

The post-obit trendline will automatically be added to the chart:

Trendline in Google Sheets

We can see that the line of best fit seems to capture the tendency in the data quite well.

Above the scatterplot, we see that the equation for this line of best fit is as follows:

y = 2.eight*x + 4.44

The R-squared for this line turns out to be.938. This indicates that 93.8% of the variation in the response variable, y, can exist explained past the predictor variable,x.

Nosotros can also apply the equation for the line of best fit to find the estimated value ofy based on the value ofx. For example, ifx = 3 so y is estimated to be 12.84:

y = 2.8*(3) + 4.44 = 12.84