Normally, the response (dependent or outcome) variable $y_i$ is the outcome of a numerical experiment or another type of experiment and is thus only an approximation to the true value. It is then always accompanied by an error estimate, often limited to a statistical error estimate given by the standard deviation discussed earlier. In the discussion here we will treat $y_i$ as our exact value for the response variable.

Introducing the standard deviation $\sigma_i$ for each measurement $y_i$, we define now the $\chi^2$ function (omitting the $1/n$ term) as

$$\chi^2(\boldsymbol{\beta})=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=0}^{n-1}\frac{\left(y_i-\tilde{y}_i\right)^2}{\sigma_i^2}=\frac{1}{n}\left\{\left(\boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{\tilde{y}}\right)^T\frac{1}{\boldsymbol{\Sigma^2}}\left(\boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{\tilde{y}}\right)\right\},$$

where the matrix $\boldsymbol{\Sigma}$ is a diagonal matrix with $\sigma_i$ as matrix elements.