What does "extrapolate" mean in this sentence?
The sentence is as follows.
"Some science fiction writers believe that one of the responsibilities of the genre is to analyze present trends in science and society and extrapolate them into the future so that their possible impact can be assessed."
The basic meaning of this word is to estimate or to infer, but I don't think it fits very well with the rest of the sentence above. Additionally, is " to extrapolate something into something" a common phrase? What does it mean? Could you help me with some explanations? Thanks.

Question

What does "extrapolate" mean in this sentence?
The sentence is as follows.
"Some science fiction writers believe that one of the responsibilities of the genre is to analyze present trends in science and society and extrapolate them into the future so that their possible impact can be assessed." 
The basic meaning of this word is to estimate or to infer, but I don't think it fits very well with the rest of the sentence above. Additionally, is " to extrapolate something into something" a common phrase? What does it mean? Could you help me with some explanations? Thanks.

Answer

To "extrapolate" means to infer a value (which in the simplest case you can think of as being the dependent variable on a Cartesian chart) for values of the independent variable(s) for which you have no data, but using a trend or rate for which you do have data.

So here, you have no data for the future, because, well, it hasn't happened yet. So you assume that current trends will continue ("into the future"). Consequently you can estimate what the effects will be, based on those trends.

Answers · 1

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