Question about Polynomial Fitting and Degree
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:27 pm
We had some confusion here regarding your polynomial fitting function and the degree parameter that is passed to that function.
The degree is limited to be between 2 and 20.
When we pass degree 2, we get a linear polynomial (a line, y=mx+b).
But that is defined as a Degree 1 normally.
And degree 2 usually is how you refer to a quadratic (y=ax^2 + bx + c) but in order to produce that from your polynomial fitting function we have to call it a degree of 3.
That is somewhat confusing in that it does not follow what I am told are the standard definitions of the degree of a polynomial. So is the parameter really the number of terms in the equation and not technically the degree? It is called degree in the feature demo.
Can you explain the usage of 2-20 instead of starting at 1 since a degree 1 should yield the linear result?
I myself am not a "math guy" I'm just the programmer implementing this into our application. The guys that use my app have more detailed knowledge about the math side of it and were the ones that raised this confusion to me. So I'm mostly looking for an answer I can give to them to explain this apparent difference.
Thanks
The degree is limited to be between 2 and 20.
When we pass degree 2, we get a linear polynomial (a line, y=mx+b).
But that is defined as a Degree 1 normally.
And degree 2 usually is how you refer to a quadratic (y=ax^2 + bx + c) but in order to produce that from your polynomial fitting function we have to call it a degree of 3.
That is somewhat confusing in that it does not follow what I am told are the standard definitions of the degree of a polynomial. So is the parameter really the number of terms in the equation and not technically the degree? It is called degree in the feature demo.
Can you explain the usage of 2-20 instead of starting at 1 since a degree 1 should yield the linear result?
I myself am not a "math guy" I'm just the programmer implementing this into our application. The guys that use my app have more detailed knowledge about the math side of it and were the ones that raised this confusion to me. So I'm mostly looking for an answer I can give to them to explain this apparent difference.
Thanks