Abstract
In the first published treatment of the least squares, Legendre applied his new method to the French meridian data measured for the determination of the length of the meter (Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes (1805) 76 Firmin Didot). Legendre treated one error term as a constant. It is shown here that it turns out to be equivalent to the generalized least squares solution of his model (Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes (1805) 77 Firmin Didot).
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Harri Högmander and Tiia-Maria Pasanen for their help in finalizing the paper. The author also thanks an associated editor and a referee for their constructive criticism and comments.
Citation
Jukka Nyblom. "Note on Legendre’s Method of Least Squares." Statist. Sci. 38 (3) 510 - 513, August 2023. https://doi.org/10.1214/23-STS887
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