Editing Likelihood function (section)

===Graph===
The [[Graph of a function|graph]] of the log-likelihood is called the '''support curve''' (in the [[univariate]] case).<ref name="Edwards72">{{cite book|last=Edwards|first=A. W. F.|authorlink=A. W. F. Edwards| orig-date=1972| year=1992| title=Likelihood| publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|isbn=0-8018-4443-6}}</ref>
In the multivariate case, the concept generalizes into a '''support surface''' over the [[parameter space]].
It has a relation to, but is distinct from, the [[Support (mathematics)#Support (statistics)|support of a distribution]].

The term was coined by [[A. W. F. Edwards]]<ref name="Edwards72" /> in the context of [[statistical hypothesis testing]], i.e. whether or not the data "support" one hypothesis (or parameter value) being tested more than any other.

The log-likelihood function being plotted is used in the computation of the [[score (statistics)|score]] (the gradient of the log-likelihood) and [[Fisher information]] (the curvature of the log-likelihood). Thus, the graph has a direct interpretation in the context of [[maximum likelihood estimation]] and [[likelihood-ratio test]]s.