Graphs, Calculations and Other Means for Torturing Your Data

An Introduction to the Use of Spreadsheets

The objective of this exercise is to become proficient with the use of spreadsheets for calculations and graphing. There is a tutorial that will walk you through the spreadsheet program, Excel. You will need to go through this tutorial, in its entirety, as part of this lab exercise. You will use your data from the density lab in the graphing and linear regression exercises, and you will use the spreadsheet for calculations with the class data from the "Pennies" experiment.

It will be useful to have the Excel tutorial (via the www) and the Spreadsheet program on your computer simultaneously.
(These directions were written by a PC user. Is there a Mac Expert in the house that can help shape these directions for a Mac?)

If you are reading this on a computer screen, you already know how to open the Netscape browser. If you got these directions in a hard copy from a friend, it is time to learn how to get them yourself:
- Find the folder labelled "Internet" or "WWW" or "Browsers".
- Double click on it.
- Find the icon for Netscape Navigator.
- Double click on it.
- Once the program is up and running, you will see a lovely picture of our campus. To go directly to the chemistry home page, type in the following address in the box after "location": http://wwwchem.csustan.edu
- Once you are in chem land, click on the button "Information for Specific Courses".
- Next, click on the button for "1102"
To open Excel, you will need to return to the "Program Manager" screen. To do that, hold down the "alt" key on your keyboard and simultaneous hit the "tab" key--keep the "alt" key pressed down until you see a little box with "Program manager" in it. This combination of keys allows you to toggle through all of the applications that are open.
Once you have the "Program manager" screen in front of you, you will need to find the file folder that contains the Excel program. It is usually labelled, "MS Office", however sometimes Excel is in another folder. Upon locating the icon for Excel, double click on it to open it.

At this point, you have Excel, Program Manager and Netscape Navigator open. You can now toggle back and forth between these three programs by holding down the "alt" key and hitting the "tab" key until you find the open program that you want.
Alternatively, you can have both Excel and Netscape Navigator on the screen simultaneously. While in the Netscape Navigator program, click on the up and down arrows in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Now you can use the mouse to size the window of the program that you are viewing. Drag the top blue bar to put the window where you want it, drag the bottom or side edges to shrink or enlarge the window. Now use alt/tab combo to get back to Excel and repeat the above procedure.

In order to save your work, you will need to have your own 3.5" floppy disk. You can format it by using the file manager program (located in the "Main" folder). Put your disk in, open file manager and pull down the menu under disk, then select "format disk". In most cases you will be formatting a 1.44 MB disk in drive A.

You are now ready to begin the Excel Tutorial.

Back to Chemistry

Graphs, Calculations and Other Means for Torturing Your Data

An Introduction to the Use of Spreadsheets

You are now ready to begin the Excel Tutorial.