This is an introductory Pylons tutorial with a bit more meat on its bones than a quickie wiki, and is not for the faint of heart.
If you aren't familiar with Curve Fitting
, it is how you go about finding a mathematical equation that runs through a set of data points. For example, a temperature probe puts out a voltage that you need converted to degrees Centigrade. What is the exact relationship between voltage and temperature? Or consider a chemical reaction that creates carbon dioxide when it runs - what should the rate of CO 2 production be 1/2 hour into the reaction? Curve fitting can be used (and abused) to find answers to such questions.
Surface fitting simply extends this idea into 3 dimensions. As an example, how do temperature and salinity affect steady-state plankton density in the open ocean?
In each case, data would be taken - voltages, temperatures, CO 2 production rates, etc. - and fit to some mathematical equation. In this tutorial we won't be taking any data, but we will fit 2D and 3D data to mathematical equations. Before we begin, there are a few prerequisites.
Next: --> Prerequisites
