Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Working With Spreadsheets

Purpose: To get familiar with electronic spreadsheets by using them in some simple applications.


These are pictures of the first spreadsheet we did. We used f(x)=Asin(Bx+C) as our function. We had x start at zero and then go to 10 by 0.1. In the equation, A = amplitude which is 5 in this equation, B = frequency which is 3, and C = phase which is pi/3.
The first picture has the equation shown. In the second picture, we have the numerical value after excel plugged in the numbers.





This is the graph of the plotted points. The x values are that of which we used in excel sheet. It starts at zero and goes to ten by 0.1. The y values are the numerical values we got after excel plugged the numbers into the equation.
The original equation is f(x)=5sin(3x+(pi/3). After doing the best fit quadratic line, out equation comes out to be f(x)=5sin(3x+1.05). This is fairly correct when pi/3 is rounded to two decimal places. We used 1.047198 for pi/3.








These are the excel spreadsheets from the second equation we did, f(x)=A+Bx+Cx^2. In this equation, A is position (x0) which equals 1000m. B is velocity (v0) which equals 50m/s. Lastly, C is gravity which equals -4.9m/s^2. For the x values, x is represented by delta t which equals 0.2. We interpreted this as the x values start at 0.2 and increase by 0.2 as well. We had it go to ten just like the last equation.
The first spreadsheet shows the equation and the second spreadsheet shows the numerical value after excel plugged the numbers into the equation.








This it the graph that comes from the second equation. The x values are delta t which starts at 0.2 and increase by 0.2. The y values are the numerical values given by plugging the numbers into the equation.
Our original equation was f(x)=1000+50x-4.9x^2. The best fit line we got was f(x)=1000+50x-4.9x^2. The equation is the exact same as the one we used.








Conclusion: This was a good lab to do because we were able to practice or learn how to use excel. It was also good because we could see how the different parts of equations affect the graph. In our group we originally had put acceleration (gravity) as positive 4.9m/s^2. Our graph was completely different from the one that was negative. Our parabola was upside down opening up. That was the only problem we had in this lab. Once we fixed the problem, it all made sense.

1 comment:

  1. Raychel, nice write up.

    You say in your comments above "lastly, C is gravity which equals -4.9m/s^2."

    Gravity equals 4.9 m/s^2 ... ?

    grade == s

    ReplyDelete