Articles | Volume 14, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-17-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-17-2017
Research article
 | 
03 Jan 2017
Research article |  | 03 Jan 2017

The long-solved problem of the best-fit straight line: application to isotopic mixing lines

Richard Wehr and Scott R. Saleska

Viewed

Total article views: 3,172 (including HTML, PDF, and XML)
HTML PDF XML Total BibTeX EndNote
1,710 1,330 132 3,172 93 109
  • HTML: 1,710
  • PDF: 1,330
  • XML: 132
  • Total: 3,172
  • BibTeX: 93
  • EndNote: 109
Views and downloads (calculated since 03 Aug 2016)
Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 03 Aug 2016)

Cited

Latest update: 20 Nov 2024
Download

The requested paper has a corresponding corrigendum published. Please read the corrigendum first before downloading the article.

Short summary
In 1969, Derek York published a highly general solution to the common problem of how to fit a straight line to points measured with error in both x and y. Unfortunately York's solution is almost unknown outside the geophysical literature, and new studies wrestle with the problem each year. We introduce York's solution and demonstrate it using an example from biogeochemistry: the isotopic mixing line. By Monte Carlo simulation, we show that York’s solution is superior to all popular fit methods.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint