It is shown that a vehicle with engines of low sustained thrust can be directed along a logarithmic spiral through an inverse-square gravitational field by means of an extremely simple guidance system; it is possible to choose a spiral for which initial and final velocities are optimum.
The familiar method of fitting a straight line to a set of experimentally observed points by use of least squares, is reviewed, and variations of it briefly discussed. Then methods, apparently not so familiar to many physicists, for estimating the adequacy of the fit thus obtained, and for comparing the results of several such experiments, are explained. A few of the principles of mathematical statistics underlying these methods are given in the Appendix.
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