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3.1 The Method of Least Squares: Regression Analysis

The squares of the residuals are minimized; there is justification for this, and there is a long history and a vast literature (e.g. Williams 1959, Linnik 1961, Montgomery & Peck 1992).

For our particular example of fitting the ``regression line'', or a straight line y = ax + b through N pairs of (xi, yi), the solution to the least squares of the residuals in y yields

Equation 6 and

Equation 7

In the absence of knowledge of the how and why of a relation between the xi and the yi any two-parameter curve may be fitted to the data pairs with simple coordinate transformations: for example

  1. an exponential, y = b exp a, requires yi to be changed to ln yi in the above expressions;

  2. a power-law, y = bxa; change yi to ln yi and xi to ln xi;

  3. a parabola, y = b + ax2; change xi to sqrtxi.

(Note that the residuals cannot be Gaussian for all of these transformations: of course it is always possible to minimize the squares of the residuals, but it may well not be possible to retain the formal justification for doing so.)

There are many further variations available. Algebra can provide expressions for weighted data-pairs and/or the fitting of polynomials of any order. For all of these, residuals can be examined to determine which is the best way to model the data relations.

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