1. The Briefest Excel Tutorial You’ll Ever See

2. Microsoft Excel, or any spreadsheet for that matter, is an incredibly rich calculation program In this most skimpy of lessons, we will discuss only: ◦Labels ◦Numbers ◦Formulas ◦Graphs

3. Excel is like a map: each cell has an address Columns use letters, rows use numbers Addresses therefore are like A3, F89, CC34, etc.

4. A label is simple text ◦In this case the word ‘Label’ is in cell A1 ◦Excel cannot do math if any letters are in a cell You can edit a label by clicking in the edit bar

5. A number is, well, a number 3.14 is in cell A2 You can edit numbers in the edit bar

6. A formula is what make a spreadsheet powerful ◦It’ll blow your TI Eighty-Whatever out of the room! Formulas always start with = You can enter numbers in a formula, but… Sometimes it’s better to point to a cell ◦However, you can mix numbers and cell addresses Some simple math functions are: ◦Addition + ◦Subtraction – ◦Multiplication * ◦Division / ◦Powers ^

7. Here the formula adds 1 to the contents of cell A2

8. No surprise: 4.14 See the option to edit in the edit bar?

9. The truly wonderful part is drag and copy Place the cursor in the lower right-hand corner of the cell you wish to copy Hold down the left mouse button and drag

10. Voila! The formula looks in successive cells and adds 1 to each cell’s value This way if you change a cell’s contents you don’t have to adjust the formula

11. Now let’s graph ◦Highlight the values you wish to graph ◦Click on the scatter chart icon in the toolbar

12. For the XY sub-type choose the one that does not connect the dots Click it and the graph will pop into existence

13. Right click on a data point. A dialog box opens Choose “Add Trendline…”

14. Choose the type that best fits your data, meaning that the line/curve hits the maximum number of points ◦N.B. Sometimes you will be directed to use a Linear trendline ◦If so, choose Display Equation

15. Click on your chart and go to Chart Tools/Layout Add a Chart Title Add both Axis Titles

16. This just touches the surface of what Excel can do. I encourage you to explore the program; you can do no harm and it will only enhance your abilities

17. Three Exercises Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 (For Teacher TRaC students) Exercise 3 Exercise 3A (for Astronomy Students) Exercise 3A