A Box-Wilson Central Composite Design, commonly called 'a central composite design,' contains an imbedded factorial or fractional factorial design with center points that is augmented with a group of 'star points' that allow estimation of curvature. If the distance from the center of the design space to a factorial point is ±1 unit for each factor, the distance from the center of the design space to a star point is |α| > 1. The precise value of α depends on certain properties desired for the design and on the number of factors involved.