logistic curve

American  

noun

Mathematics.

1. a curve, shaped like a letter S , defined as an exponential function and used to model various forms of growth.

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Etymology

Origin of logistic curve

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

The logistic curve fitted on a five-year average of these numbers is still in its very early stages, which makes the pattern so far indistinguishable from the exponential pattern mentioned earlier.

From Scientific American

It is more reasonable to assume that they tend to grow along some variant of what mathematicians call a logistic curve, as illustrated in the graph below.

From New York Times

They prefer to fit data to variants of a “logistic” curve.

From Economist

Dr. Pearl has constructed a "logistic" curve following the population rise of the past three centuries.

From Time Magazine Archive

Among these subjects were the transit of Mercury, the Aurora Borealis, the figure of the earth, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation, the application of mathematics to the theory of the telescope, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the law of continuity, the double refraction micrometer, various problems of spherical trigonometry, &c.

From Project Gutenberg