curve fitting : Java Glossary

Curve fitting involves discovering the best mathematical function of a given form that approximates a given set of data. Best is often defined as minimising the sum of the squares of the difference between the data and the mathematical approximation. Often what you are doing is trying to find the underlying mathematical principle that controls the data. Don’t just jump for a least squares linear interpolation or order n polynomial approximation. Mathematicians have come up with much better functions.