Polynomial regression is a regression technique we use when the relationship between a predictor variable and a response variable is nonlinear.
This tutorial explains how to plot a polynomial regression curve in R.
Related: The 7 Most Common Types of Regression
Example: Plot Polynomial Regression Curve in R
The following code shows how to fit a polynomial regression model to a dataset and then plot the polynomial regression curve over the raw data in a scatterplot:
#define data x <- runif(50, 5, 15) y <- 0.1*x^3 - 0.5 * x^2 - x + 5 + rnorm(length(x),0,10) #plot x vs. y plot(x, y, pch=16, cex=1.5) #fit polynomial regression model fit <- lm(y ~ x + I(x^2) + I(x^3)) #use model to get predicted values pred <- predict(fit) ix <- sort(x, index.return=T)$ix #add polynomial curve to plot lines(x[ix], pred[ix], col='red', lwd=2)
We can also add the fitted polynomial regression equation to the plot using the text() function:
#define data x <- runif(50, 5, 15) y <- 0.1*x^3 - 0.5 * x^2 - x + 5 + rnorm(length(x),0,10) #plot x vs. y plot(x, y, pch=16, cex=1.5) #fit polynomial regression model fit <- lm(y ~ x + I(x^2) + I(x^3)) #use model to get predicted values pred <- predict(fit) ix <- sort(x, index.return=T)$ix #add polynomial curve to plot lines(x[ix], pred[ix], col='red', lwd=2) #get model coefficients coeff <- round(fit$coefficients , 2) #add fitted model equation to plot text(9, 200 , paste("Model: ", coeff[1], " + ", coeff[2], "*x", "+", coeff[3], "*x^2", "+", coeff[4], "*x^3"), cex=1.3)
Note that the cex argument controls the font size of the text. The default value is 1, so we chose to use a value of 1.3 to make the text easier to read.
Additional Resources
An Introduction to Polynomial Regression
How to Fit a Polynomial Curve in Excel
How to Perform Polynomial Regression in Python