Multiple Regression Analysis Introductory Overview - Computational Approach

The general computational problem that needs to be solved in multiple regression analysis is to fit a straight line to a number of points.

In the simplest case - one dependent and one independent variable - one can visualize this in a scatterplot (scatterplots can automatically be created from the spreadsheet of correlations by right-clicking on the desired cell and selecting Graphs of Input Data -- Scatterplot from the shortcut menu).