Plotting, Bisection, and Least Squares

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Chapter 30 Plotting, Bisection, and Least Squares

Scientific computing often means more than just computing a number— we also want to see our results. In this chapter we’ll learn to plot data straight from a C program using gnuplot, and then put that ability to use in two classic scientific-computing problems: finding the root of an equation with the bisection method, and finding the best-fit line through a set of data points with least squares (linear regression). Here’s what we’ll cover:

Plotting with gnuplot
The bisection method for solving $f(x) = 0$
Least squares (linear regression)

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