Fitting Linear Relationships: A History of the Calculus of Observations 1750–1900 (Springer Series in Statistics) - Hardcover

Farebrother, R.W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0387985980 ISBN 13: 9780387985985

Publisher: Springer, 1998

Synopsis

This book is intended for students of mathematical statistics who are interested in the early history of their subject. It gives detailed algebraic descriptions of the fitting of linear relationships by the method of least squares (L ) and the related least absolute 2 deviations (L ) and minimax absolute deviations (Loo) procedures. These traditional line J fitting procedures are, of course, also addressed in conventional statistical textbooks, but the discussion of their historical background is usually extremely slight, if not entirely absent. The present book complements the analysis of these procedures given in S.M. Stigler'S excellent work The History of Statistics: The Quantification of Uncertainty before 1900. However, the present book gives a more detailed account of the algebraic structure underlying these traditional fitting procedures. It is anticipated that readers of the present book will obtain a clear understanding of the historical background to these and other commonly used statistical procedures. Further, a careful consideration of the wide variety of distinct approaches to a particular topic, such as the method of least squares, will give the reader valuable insights into the essential nature of the selected topic.

About this title

Review

From the reviews:

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION

"Farebrother gives the details of the algebraic development of various procedures, striving to make them more understandable by modernizing and standardizing the notation as much as possible without departing too far from that used by the original developers. ...Readers interested in the history...will be gratified by the helpful historical and bigraphical notes...I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and recommend it without hesitation to readers interested in the subject."

 

Synopsis

This book describes the development of what we would now regard as a class of statistical fitting procedures between 1750 and 1900. The book contains detailed algebraic descriptions of the fitting of linear relationships by the method of least squares and the closely related least absolute deviations and minimax absolute deviations procedures. The prerequisite is a basic course in mathematical statistics. The primary audience for this book will be statisticians concerned with the fitting of linear models. However, it will also be of interest to engineers and scientists concerned with the empirical determination of linear relationships.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387985980
• ISBN 13: 9780387985985
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 283