8
Curve Fitting
8.0 INTRODUCTION
Quite often in engineering and science, we conduct experiments involving two quantities, say x and y. Suppose x1, x2, ...,xn be the values of x corresponding to which the values of y are y1, y2 ..., yn. We would like to know the functional relation between x and y. As a first step we plot the points (x1, y1), (x2, y2), .... (xn, yn) with respect to rectangular axes. The resulting set of points plotted is called a scatter diagram. From the scatter diagram it is possible to visualize a smooth curve which passes as closely as possible to these points and that approximates the data. Such a curve is called an approximating curve.
The equation of this curve between x and y is called an empirical relation.
For example, ...
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