Fitting Primes to a Linear Model

The first prime numbers can be roughly approximated by a linear function of their index . That is, the prime is close to for some constants and . This Demonstration fits the first primes to a linear function and displays the Cook's distances and residuals for each point. Larger Cook's distances indicate greater influence or leverage of the associated point on the fitting. For the primes, points near the ends of the range have larger residuals and greater influence on the overall fit.