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Historical Note on the Method of Least Squares

Abstract

THIS excellent method for the discussion of observations was published and first practically applied by Gauss in his Theoria Motûs, 1808. In the American Journal of Science for June 1871, Mr. Cleveland Abbe has shown that Prof. Robert Adrain, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S., independently discovered the same method in 1808. I wish to call attention to what seems to me a singular oversight in the history of this subject, viz., to the fact that in 1770–1773, Lagrange published an elaborate memoir at Turin under the title “Mémoire sur l'utilité de la Méthode de prendre le Milieu entre ies resultats de plusieurs Observations,” &c. Vide “(Åuvres de Lagrange,” edited by J. A. Serret, vol. 2.

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HALL, A. Historical Note on the Method of Least Squares. Nature 6, 101–102 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/006101c0

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