FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Fun Trivia
Home: Questions and Answers Forum
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


When drawing up a science graph, when do you do a line of best fit, or a curve of best fit?

Question #110707. Asked by Rachel xx.

Related Trivia Topics: Sci / Tech  
avatar
looney_tunes star
Answer has 14 votes
Currently Best Answer
looney_tunes star
19 year member
3311 replies avatar

Answer has 14 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Whenever experimental data is being graphed, the 'points' representing values resulting from measurements are never perfectly accurate - there is always some error in measurement, leading to uncertainty as to the exact value. The amount of uncertainty is minimised by careful measurement, but it always exists.

A graph is drawn to show the trend in data. Joining up points in a dot-to-dot fashion ignores the uncertainty in measurement of the results, and obscures the trend. A line (or curve) of best fit should always be drawn so that the trend in the data is emphasized.

A second purpose of many graphs is to allow the formulation of a mathematical description of the relationship being shown - an equation for the line or curve. Curves are a bit tricky for developing accurate equations, as one must start by assuming the appropriate type of curve (circle, parabola, quartic, exponential, etc. - it's a LONG list) and then determine appropriate coefficients. And, due to measurement error, there may be a number of curves which all give similarly close fits to the data. For this reason, we often linearise the data - for example, plotting y versus x^2 instead of x will give a straight line if the original relationship would have produced a parabola.

There are techniques to take the guesswork out of curve fitting, which can be found in appropriate mathematical texts.


link http://www.mathsteacher.com.au/year10/ch16_statistics/09_linebestfit/24line.htm

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_fitting


You can practice drawing a line of best fit here.

link http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=146

Nov 13 2009, 2:48 PM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion

Related FunTrivia Quizzes

play quiz 1.14 "Drawing the Line"
(Melrose Place- Season 1)
play quiz Graph Theory
(Specific Math Topics)
play quiz Basics of Graph Theory
(Specific Math Topics)

Return to FunTrivia
"Ask FunTrivia" strives to offer the best answers possible to trivia questions. We ask our submitters to thoroughly research questions and provide sources where possible. Feel free to post corrections or additions. This is server B184.