DETERMINATION OF POSITION OF A POINT‐OBJECT BY TRIANGULATION IN RECTANGULAR COORDINATES

A theory is presented for determining the position of an aerial point-object from observations of its direction from several ground-stations. The criterion under which the position coordinates are determined is that the sum of the squares of the perpendicular distances of the object from the various observed directions to it should be a minimum. The statistical distribution of the observations is considered, and the theory developed for estimating the standard deviations of the object's coordinates. The relevant equations have been programmed for evaluation by the Pegasus electronic computer.