EXCEL Tutorial: How to use EXCEL for Graphs and Calculations.
Excel is powerful tool and can make your life easier if you are proficient in using it. You
will need to use Excel to complete most of your experiments and are expected to know
how to manipulate data, prepare plots and analyze error.
In Excel, the columns are labeled with letters, and rows are labeled by numbers. The
individual boxes are called cells, which are designated by column and row. For example,
the top left cell in the spreadsheet is A1. You can highlight an entire row or column by
clicking on the letter or number, at the start of the row or top of the column, it is
designated by. You can highlight specific cells by clicking INSIDE the cell and dragging
the mouse. Pressing ENTER moves you down a column. Pressing TAB moves you
across a row.
A new workbook contains three separate worksheets. Tabs at bottom of the worksheets,
labeled “Sheet 1” etc allow you to switch between the sheets. You can insert a new sheet
by clicking INSERT, then WORKSHEET.
Part 1. Entering Formulas
Enter the following data in a column: 45, 56, 48, 51, 26, 58, 41, 67, 52, 57. Take the
average. We can do this by entering a formula. All formulas must begin with an equal
sign. Microsoft Excel has many common formulas “programmed” under key words. The
average is on of these. It’s keyword is ‘average.’ After typing ‘=average’ it is necessary
to specify the cells which have the numbers to be averaged. For example, where A1 is
the beginning cell and A10 is the ending cell:
After you type the complete formula, and hit enter, the answer replaces your formula.
Take the standard deviation, keyword is ‘stdev’, and the sum, keyword is ‘sum’. You
should determine that the standard deviation is 11.19 and the sum is 501. For a complete
list of keywords click INSERT then FUNCTION. Use one of these keywords to find the
median of the data set. Your answer should be 52.
If the data in column A was supposed to have more s