A Method for Fitting Linear Combinations of Exponentials

Abstract

Many situations in biology, epidemiology, economics and the physical sciences yield data which can best be described by linear combinations of exponentials. This is particularly true in biological radiation, growth and tracer studies. In this paper it is shown that the method of partial totals may be used to fit linear combinations of any number of exponentials to data taken at equally spaced intervals. The estimation procedure is developed in detail and illustrated and is shown to be consistent though not generally efficient.