Helium Research Center internal report

the long version

This report is concerned with the necessary mathematical equations in order to accomplish the following objectives: 1. to evaluate the parameters such that the sum of the weighted squares of the residuals of an experimental observable be a true minimum, regardless of the functional relationship between the variables and these parameters; 2. to evaluate all variances and covariances of the parameters evaluated by means of the law for the propagation of errors; and 3. to insure that a true minimum will always be obtained. The equations presented in this report were developed for a three-parameter problem.