Curve fitting and parameter estimation are applications of Bayesian methodology. Have a look at http://bayes.wustl.edu/ and in particular the publications of Larry Bretthorst. Several of them have titles suggesting their relevance to your problem. Gene ----- Original Message ---- From: Chris Landauer <cal@rush.aero.org> To: math-fun@mailman.xmission.com Cc: cal@aero.org Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 5:38:26 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Fourier transforms (fitting exponentials) hihi, all - i remember a paper from one of the siam journals (probly numerical methods or something) from many years ago whose title was something like how not to fit an exponential the author(s?) describe i think 20 ways that are plausible, but do not work, and explain what the ill-conditioning means and even why (or at least that) it happens a lot i've run into this fitting some laser data to the energy transfer equations between different levels of different rare earths (not my problem, my favorite physicist friend's problem; she does the experiments and gets LOTSA data) more later, cal _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun ____________________________________________________________________________________Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz