ASTRONOMY. 



This method of determining the co-efficients of a gi- 

 ven function, or correcting them from observation, 

 by means of what are called Equations of Condi- 

 tion, is said to have been invented by TOBIAS 

 MAYER of Gb'ttingen, and employed in the con- 

 struction of his Lunar Tables. He has, how- 

 ever, given no account of it in any of his works ; 

 and DE LAMBRE says, that his own Astronomical 

 Tables are the first in which it is certainly known 

 to have been used. Astronomic, torn. n. 85. 

 It is now generally adopted by astronomers, and 

 may be introduced with great advantage into 

 many experimental investigations *. It has also 

 been improved on by LE GENDRE, who determines 

 the quantities sought, so that the sums of the 

 squares of the errors shall be a minimum. The 

 investigation is however too difficult to be in- 

 troduced into an elementary treatise. 



OUT- 



Any equation, expressing the relation that obtains among the co-effi- 

 cients of another equation, is called an Equation of Condition, ; the phrase, 

 however, is usually confined to differential equations. 



