A quantitative measure of nonlinearity.

Quantitative measures of the nonlinearity of an analytical method are defined as follows: the "(dimensional) nonlinearity" of a method is the square root of the mean of the square of the deviation of the response curve from a straight line, where the straight line is chosen to minimize the nonlinearity. The "relative nonlinearity" is defined as the dimensional nonlinearity divided by the difference between the maximum and minimum assayed values. These definitions may be used to develop practical criteria for linearity that are still objective. Calculation of the nonlinearity requires a method of curve-fitting. In this article, we use polynomial regression to demonstrate calculations, but the definition of nonlinearity also accommodates alternative nonlinear regression procedures.