The document discusses inverse theory and modeling. It defines inversion as using observations to determine objects based on their properties. An inverse problem involves data/observations, a model relating the observations to model parameters, and determining the model parameters through either forward or inverse modeling. Forward modeling varies model parameters to match predictions to observations, while inverse modeling computes the model parameters needed to reproduce the observations. Inverse problems can be linear, involving independent parameters, or nonlinear, where parameters are interdependent; linear problems are often solved using least squares fitting.