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Curve Fitting

With your mouse, drag data points and their error bars, and watch the best-fit polynomial curve update instantly. You choose the type of fit: linear, quadratic, cubic, or quartic. The reduced chi-square statistic shows you when the fit is good. Or you can try to find the best fit by manually adjusting fit parameters.

 
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Version 2.00
198 KB
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Topics Teaching Ideas Software Requirements Translated Versions Credits

Topics

Main Topics

  • Best polynomial fit to data with uncertainties
  • Error analysis with Chi Squared and Correlation Coefficient

Related Topics

Sample Learning Goals

  • Explain how the range and uncertainty and number of data points affect correlation coefficient and Chi squared
  • Describe how correlation coefficient and chi squared can be used to indicate how well a curve describes the data relationship
  • Apply understanding of Curve Fitting to designing experiments

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Teaching Ideas

Tips for Teachers

The teacher's guide contains tips for teachers created by the PhET team (PDF).

Ideas and Activities for this Sim

Submit Your Ideas & Activities

Note: The maximum file size is 64M, with a maximum upload of 64M at a time.

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file(s)
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Check the PhET design guidelines (PDF)

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Software Requirements

Flash Icon

Windows Systems Macintosh Systems Linux Systems
Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7
Macromedia Flash 8 or later
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later, or Firefox 2 or later
 OS 10.4.11 or later
Macromedia Flash 8 or later
Safari 2 or later, or Firefox 2 or later
 Macromedia Flash 8 or later
Firefox 2 or later

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Translated Versions

Run localized Download
Chinese Taiwan Chinese, Taiwan Download
Croatian Croatian Download
Dutch Dutch Download
Finnish Finnish Download
Polish Polish Download
Portuguese Brazil Portuguese, Brazil Download
Serbian Serbian Download
Spanish Spanish Download
Vietnamese Vietnamese Download

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Credits

Design Team Third-party Libraries Thanks To
  • Michael Dubson (developer/lead)
  • Trish Loeblein
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