Mathematics for engineers — I: Fitting functions to engineering data

Increasing interest of electrical engineers in mathematics has stimulated conferences on the subject at recent AIEE meetings. Presentations made during the 1948 winter general meeting have led to the preparation of a 3-part series, which will be made available in pamphlet form following its completion in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. In this first part of the series, reasons and methods for fitting functions to data are outlined and the degree of confidence that may placed in data is discussed. Subsequent parts of the series will discuss the method of Graeco-Latin squares and the dimensional analysis of partial differential equations.