APS111H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Complement Factor B, Equals Sign, Weighted Arithmetic Mean
Document Summary
Least squares and chi-squared x y = a + b. We often encounter data that should obey a linear relation measured quantities, and we want to find the values of a and b that best describe the data, and the uncertainties of a and b . If there are only two ( x , y ) data points, there is a unique line connecting them, and a and b can be computed from the two x and two y values. As we have seen in previous tutorials, the uncertainties in a and b can then be calculated from the uncertainties in the x and y values. If there are more than two data points, it is less obvious what the best line would be, and much less obvious what the uncertainties of a and b would be. One would hope that having more data points would reduce the uncertainties.