y = 0.5037x + 17.168 R2 = 0.914

For most of the general population, y = 0.5037x + 17.168 R2 = 0.914 looks like a simple equation we might have learned in our junior high elementary algebra class. For me, this is way of life, a language that has permeated my home, an explanation for everything from the centripital force required to slide a jar of salad dressing off a rotating lazy susan, to the coefficient of energy and convective heat transfer during the turkey cooking process at Thanksgiving. These tidbits of knowledge are always accompanied by heated (no pun intended) discussions between my husband (the engineer), and my four children (also engineers or future engineers), which include each of them pulling out their graphing calculators to systematically demonstrate their superior mathematical prowess.

So, it should be no surprise to find a color coded spreadsheet in my inbox this morning, which contains data points and trend lines displaying our 100 days of weight loss for the "Biggest Losers Couples" competition Scott and I have been participating in. But really, who can compete with this? What does it say about a man, when he calculates that the "data to model match" is 99.89%, he is more excited about this result than the fact he has lost over 40 pounds?

By the way, in case you are concerned about our "Biggest Loser" numbers being accurate, Scott has also done a new curve fit analysis that uses a third-order polynomial that fits the curve to an R-squared value of 99.22% accuracy:

y = 3E-05x3 - 0.0082x2 + 0.9368x + 1.5113 R2 = 0.9922

Whew! Are you relieved or what?