Fitting a circle to surveyed points at the base of a conical stockpile

Abstract A rigorous, least squares method of fitting a circle to four or more co-ordinated points is presented. The method was developed as a solution to the problem of finding the centre and radius of the best fitting circle for a set of surveyed points around the base of a conical stockpile, where only part of the circumference of the base is accessible. The method yields the radius, and co-ordinates of the centre, of the best fitting circle, which are needed for volume calculations.