Fluid Mechanics Laboratory Video: Least Squares and Curve Fitting

The second video for the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, concerning least squares and curve fitting.

The text version of this lecture is here: Least Squares Analysis and Curve Fitting.

Additional Resources:

• Lab Procedure for Least Squares and Curve Fitting
• Concerning plotting this by hand, you’ll need to see this: Linear Regression by Hand.
• One topic that isn’t covered in the video lecture is multiple independent variables. It is covered in the handout; however, this is one of those times when a job is best left to someone else, and a video on how to use the spreadsheet LINEST function to accomplish this is here: Using LINEST for Least Squares Regression With More Than One Independent Variable.
• Choosing the best trendline for your data. Some advice from Microsoft.
• A comparison of the results of 1-norm to 2-norm data fitting
• For those of you who haven’t done much (if any) spreadsheet plotting, you might find this useful: Plotting Graphs With a Spreadsheet.
• What’s Really Important When You Hit the Field