Talk:Human population growth indicates a young earth (Talk.Origins)

I want to make sure this on solid mathematical ground. If the average growth rate is 0.5% that means that given a historical set of data of the annual population, the best fit exponential growth curve is one that has a base number = 1.005

Mathematically we would say

E = sum over N of ( 2*(1.005^N) - P(N) )

E is the fitting error

N is the year

P(N) is the actual population of the earth at year N

Now all we need to show is that E is minimized (hence the best fit) when the value of 1.005 is used, given the values of P(N) which we know. We could also calculate the change in E as the values of P(N) are varied slightly, to see how sensitive our model value 1.005 is to the data (hopefully our model is robust!).

I would be happy to carry out these calculations, does anyone know a good source for the P(N) data spanning creation to present day?