I am obviously not a math wiz, so please pardon my crude explanation... I'm just assuming this can be done, and need to know WHAT it is called, so I can research and educate myself on the process and the math.
I know in LINEAR REGRESSION a line is calculated/drawn through the set of points and a SLOPE value describing the line is calculated/returned...
(Please point me in the right direction...)
In place of the SLOPE LINE, my data points resemble a CURVE... I want to calculate/draw a CURVE (both concave and convex looking) through my points and then calculate/return a result (like the linear regression slope) that defines the CURVE...
My goal is to end up with a value (slope, like in LR) that describes the CURVE, so I can compare OTHER CURVES (form other data points) and determine how closely the "new" curves compare to "known" curves.
Is there something like the Linear Regression SLOPE used similarly to define a CURVE?
Thank you!
Check out polynomial regression
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial_regression
and in general, nonlinear regression
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_regression