Physics307L:Schedule/Week 10 agenda

• Fitting a line
  • AKA linear regression; least-squares fit for a line
  • Why fitting a line?
  • Theoretical
    • Assume gaussian distribution for each [math]\displaystyle{ y_i }[/math] with same sigma for all measurements (not necessary, but simplifies it).
    • Maximum likelihood...Chi-squared
    • Derivative (minimize Chi-squared) / solve
  • Practical step by step w/ Excel