The following data give, for certain years between 1982 and 2002, the percentages of British women who were cigarette smokers. Year 1982 1984 1988 1990 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 Percentage 33.1 31.8...

The following data give, for certain years between 1982 and 2002, the percentages of British women who were cigarette smokers.

Treat these data as coming from a linear regression model, with the input being the year and the response being the percentage. Take 1982 as the base year, so 1982 has input value
x
= 0, 1986 has input value
x
= 4, and so on.

(a) Estimate the value of σ².

(b)Predict the percentage of British women who smoked in 1997.