Polynomial trendline order in Excel 2007

Arnaud Miege · External Since: Nov 04, 2009 Posts: 1

Any particular reason why the maximum order for a polynomial trendline in
Excel 2007 is 6? This seems rather limiting. Any way of using a higher order
polynomial?

Thanks in advance,

Arnaud

Jon Peltier · External Since: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 179

FWIW, most poly fits of order six that you see in Excel have been
woefully overfitted. Most poly fits should not have an order higher than
two.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://peltiertech.com/

Arnaud Miege wrote:
> Any particular reason why the maximum order for a polynomial trendline in
> Excel 2007 is 6? This seems rather limiting. Any way of using a higher order
> polynomial?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Arnaud
>
>

Bernard Liengme · External Since: Aug 27, 2003 Posts: 146

I concur with Jon (who is not know for lightly forgiving Microsoft for any
of its 'trespasses')
In the physical sciences, a fit with more than 4 terms is very rare
One has to ask: what is the meaning of these terms?
Mathematically, any N order pairs of data can be fitted to a N-1 order
polynomial (2 points -> straight line, 3 points -> a parabola, etc) but just
because we can make a fit it does not mean we necessarily know more about
the data.
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Arnaud Miege" <arnaud.miege.DeleteThis@nospam.mathworks.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uzml53VXKHA.4588@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Any particular reason why the maximum order for a polynomial trendline in
> Excel 2007 is 6? This seems rather limiting. Any way of using a higher
> order polynomial?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Arnaud
>