Very high residual Sum-of-Squares

Question

I'm having a problem with the square sum-of-residues of an fitting. The square sum of the residues is too high which indicates that the fit is not very good. However, visually it looks fine to have this very high residual value ... Can anyone help me to know what's going on?

My data:

x=c(0.017359, 0.019206, 0.020619, 0.021022, 0.021793, 0.022366, 0.025691, 0.025780, 0.026355, 0.028858, 0.029766, 0.029967, 0.030241, 0.032216, 0.033657,
 0.036250, 0.039145, 0.040682, 0.042334, 0.043747, 0.044165, 0.044630, 0.046045, 0.048138, 0.050813, 0.050955, 0.051910, 0.053042, 0.054853, 0.056886,
0.058651, 0.059472, 0.063770,0.064567, 0.067415, 0.067802, 0.068995, 0.070742,0.073486, 0.074085 ,0.074452, 0.075224, 0.075853, 0.076192, 0.077002,
 0.078273, 0.079376, 0.083269, 0.085902, 0.087619, 0.089867, 0.092606, 0.095944, 0.096327, 0.097019, 0.098444, 0.098868, 0.098874, 0.102027, 0.103296,
 0.107682, 0.108392, 0.108719, 0.109184, 0.109623, 0.118844, 0.124023, 0.124244, 0.129600, 0.130892, 0.136721, 0.137456, 0.147343, 0.149027, 0.152818,
0.155706,0.157650, 0.161060, 0.162594, 0.162950, 0.165031, 0.165408, 0.166680, 0.167727, 0.172882, 0.173264, 0.174552,0.176073, 0.185649, 0.194492,
 0.196429, 0.200050, 0.208890, 0.209826, 0.213685, 0.219189, 0.221417, 0.222662, 0.230860, 0.234654, 0.235211, 0.241819, 0.247527, 0.251528, 0.253664,
 0.256740, 0.261723, 0.274585, 0.278340, 0.281521, 0.282332, 0.286166, 0.288103, 0.292959, 0.295201, 0.309456, 0.312158, 0.314132, 0.319906, 0.319924,
 0.322073, 0.325427, 0.328132, 0.333029, 0.334915, 0.342098, 0.345899, 0.345936, 0.350355, 0.355015, 0.355123, 0.356335, 0.364257, 0.371180, 0.375171,
0.377743, 0.383944, 0.388606, 0.390111, 0.395080, 0.398209, 0.409784, 0.410324, 0.424782 )


y= c(34843.40, 30362.66, 27991.80 ,28511.38, 28004.74, 27987.13, 22272.41, 23171.71, 23180.03, 20173.79, 19751.84, 20266.26, 20666.72, 18884.42, 17920.78, 15980.99, 14161.08, 13534.40, 12889.18, 12436.11,
12560.56, 12651.65, 12216.11, 11479.18, 10573.22, 10783.99, 10650.71, 10449.87, 10003.68,  9517.94,  9157.04,  9104.01,  8090.20,  8059.60,  7547.20,  7613.51,  7499.47,  7273.46,  6870.20,  6887.01,
6945.55,  6927.43,  6934.73,  6993.73,  6965.39,  6855.37,  6777.16,  6259.28,  5976.27,  5835.58,  5633.88,  5387.19,  5094.94,  5129.89,  5131.42,  5056.08,  5084.47,  5155.40,  4909.01,  4854.71,
4527.62,  4528.10,  4560.14,  4580.10,  4601.70,  3964.90,  3686.20,  3718.46,  3459.13,  3432.05,  3183.09,  3186.18,  2805.15,  2773.65,  2667.73,  2598.55,  2563.02,  2482.63,  2462.49,  2478.10,
2441.70,  2456.16,  2444.00,  2438.47,  2318.64,  2331.75,  2320.43,  2303.10,  2091.95,  1924.55, 1904.91,  1854.07,  1716.52,  1717.12,  1671.00,  1602.70,  1584.89,  1581.34,  1484.16,  1449.26,
1455.06,  1388.60,  1336.71,  1305.60,  1294.58,  1274.36,  1236.51,  1132.67,  1111.35,  1095.21,  1097.71,  1077.05,  1071.04,  1043.99,  1036.22,   950.26,   941.06,   936.37,   909.72,   916.45,
911.01, 898.94,   890.68,   870.99,   867.45,   837.39,   824.93,   830.61,   815.49,   799.77,   804.84,   804.88,   775.53,   751.95,   741.01,   735.86,   717.03,   704.57,   703.74,   690.63,
684.24,   650.30,   652.74,   612.95 )

Then make fit using the nlsLM function (minpack.lm package):

library(magicaxis)
library(minpack.lm)

sig.backg=3*10^(-3) 

mod <- nlsLM(y ~ a *( 1 + (x/b)^2 )^c+sig.backg,
             start = c(a = 0, b = 1, c = 0),
             trace = TRUE)

## plot data
magplot(x, y, main = "data", log = "xy", pch=16)
## plot fitted values
lines(x, fitted(mod), col = 2, lwd = 4 )

This value is the residue:

> print(mod)
Nonlinear regression model
  model: y ~ a * (1 + (x/b)^2)^c + sig.backg
   data: parent.frame()
         a          b          c 
68504.2013     0.0122    -0.6324 
 residual sum-of-squares: 12641435

Number of iterations to convergence: 34 
Achieved convergence tolerance: 0.0000000149

sum-of-squares residual is too high : 12641435 ...

Is that so or is something wrong with the adjustment? It is bad?

Answer 1

It makes sense, since the squared mean of your response variable is 38110960. You can scale your data if you prefer to work with smaller numbers.

Answer 2

The residual sum of squares doesn't have much meaning without knowing the total sum of squares (from which R^2 can be calculated). Its value is going to increase if your data have large values or if you add more data points, regardless of how good your fit is. Also, you may want to look at a plot of your residuals versus fitted data, there is a clear pattern that should be explained by your model to ensure that your errors are Normally distributed.