   Polynomial Regression
  If I have a scatter plot of points and I want to find the best fitting polynomial to that plot of points, how would I go about doing that?  I''ve searched Google.com a bit and it seems like it might be pretty hard, but then again maybe some of the members here could point me in the right direction or tell me the basic idea of how it''s done.  If it''s really advanced math (by really advanced I mean like....more advanced than basic (I stress the word basic) calculus, I hardly know how to calculate integrals) then maybe you could tell me something a bit easier, maybe trinomial regression (don''t know if that would be easier, but...tri < poly ) or something like that.  The reason I''m doing this is to see what would happen if a set up a neural network with a bunch of inputs and had it analyze random numbers you give it, and see if it can predict the next number you''ll give it.  I know the chances of it working are slim, so if you''re going to post just to tell me that, then don''t post anything at all. 
  Try the method of least squares.http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/post.asp?method=reply&topic_id=206049;  Sorry, bad link.http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LeastSquaresFitting.html;  Nice link!  I remember learning about the method of least squares in math earlier this year, but we never went much into detail with it.  Thanks a lot. 