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I get a lot of questions about how to use Excel and whether<br>
you should use it. I know if you don't know how to use Excel<br>
it may take a little bit of time to figure things out. <br>
<br>
I have several links explaining how to do certain things in<br>
Excel. I'm using a much older (but wiser) version of Excel<br>
(2003). My explanations generally pertain to that version.<br>
I do have a link that explains some differences between<br>
this older version and the newer versions (mainly 2007,<br>
the more recent versions are similar to 2007).<br>
<br>
You can find these links by going to the following links<br>
first,<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/excel/excel.htm"><b>Using
MS Excel for Reports</b></a><br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/chem1210/faq/faq_1210.htm"><b>Helpful
Tidbits for 1210</b></a><br>
<br>
The same links can be found in both places. The specific<br>
links are,<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/chem125/faq/excel.txt"><b>Using
Excel for Calculations and Graphs</b></a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/chem125/faq/Excel2007.txt"><b>Using
Excel 2007 (Some differences to Excel 2003)</b></a><br>
<br>
I highly encourage the use of Excel, both for calculations and<br>
doing graphs.<br>
<br>
You can use Excel for exp 1 to do the calc. and graphs. Look at the<br>
example for exp 14 (vapor pressure exp) which you will do in<br>
Chem 1220. It shows how to program in eqns and get more than one<br>
data set on a graph.<br>
<br>
Even if it takes you a bit of time to learn what you need to know it
will<br>
save you a lot of time in the end. This is true for most exp and
very true<br>
for Exp 17 in Chem 1220. If you don't use Excel (or some other
graphing<br>
program) for exp 17 it will take a lot of time to complete the
calculations<br>
and graphs. Don't even get me started on what kind of grief you
will<br>
experience for Exp 17 if you are doing things by hand and make a
calculation<br>
error and don't catch it before making the graphs. <br>
<br>
One question students always ask when using Excel is how to<br>
set the significant figures in the tables and graphs. I've
explained<br>
this in the "Using Excel for Calculations and Graphs" document.<br>
You can't actually set the sig. fig. but you can set the number of<br>
decimal places Excel displays in order to get the correct number<br>
of sig. fig. If you do this in your tables before plotting, the
labels<br>
on your axes will contain the same number of decimal places<br>
(sig. fig.) as in the tables.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>What if you don't have Excel?</b><br>
<br>
You can find the following link by going to the "Using MS Excel"<br>
link above or the "Helpful Tidbits" link. It explains options.<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://chemistry.osu.edu/%7Erzellmer/excel/no_excel.htm"><b>What
if I don't have Excel?</b></a><br>
<br>
<br>
I hope these things help.<br>
<br>
Dr. Zellmer
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