Preface

The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it.

Confucius (K'ung Fu-tse, about 551 B.C.–479 B.C.)

EXCEL is the most popular spreadsheet for scientific, engineering and technical
applications because of its powerful features and universal availability. EXCEL is
a complete spreadsheet application that lets you analyze, organize, interpret, and
present data quickly and easily.
Engineering and science require imagination, insight, reasoning, and
calculation. They mutually reinforce each other, so if you can get help with one
of these things you have more than a 25 percent advantage at the start. This book
will help you with the easiest one, calculation. The other three are up to you.
Goal of this book
The goal of this book is to help you with numerical calculation and data analysis.
Calculation is easier than imagination, insight, and reasoning, but calculation is
not always easy to accomplish and it is often tedious. This is a “how to” book
intended to give you some of the survival skills that you need to get you through.
However, there are many advanced topics that you will have to learn later.
This book is designed to fit in a backpack. It should be used interactively
with your notebook or desktop PC. Turn your computer on and insert the CD.
Explore EXCEL and the workbooks on the CD as you read the chapters.
• I hear, I forget.
• I see, I remember.
• I do, I understand.

Who needs it?

This book is for engineers and scientists, a person who wants to be an engineer or
a scientist, and anyone else who wants to know some of the things that they
know. This book is basically for beginners, students who are probably struggling
with courses in calculus, chemistry, biology, and physics, and are starting up the
incline to statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, molecular biology, a.c. circuits,
electrodynamics, quantum mechanics and more specialized courses.
vii
viii Preface

What’s inside?
• 90 example workbooks on the CD, grouped by their chapters.
• Simple, straightforward explanations in text and graphics. All graphics
in the chapters are in the workbooks on the CD, where they are
displayed in color.
• How to do structured, efficient, documented workbook composition
with data entry cells, summary results and statistics cells, and
commented cells.
• Tips and tricks for using EXCEL for engineering and scientific
applications.
• Pedagogical strategies to assist beginners.
• Emphasis on graphical presentation of data in standard technical
formats.
• Web site for updates to the text and CD.
• Links to the Internet. Appendix 2 and the Bibliography are on the CD
in HTML for access with your web browser.
• Clear explanations and comparisons of numerical differentiation
methods and simple numerical integration techniques.
• Thorough treatment of Analysis ToolPak features useful in
technology.
• Exercises to apply skills learned in each chapter.
• Applications of EXCEL’s matrix operations.
• Using EXCEL to import, analyze, and export data to a word processor.
• Inserting an active worksheet in a word processor.
• Including video clips and screen cam clips in a worksheet.
• Using EXCEL for automatic data acquisition and control of local and
remote experiments.
• Using EXCEL with popular student lab hardware and software.
• Acquiring experimental data in EXCEL through the serial or parallel
port without a data acquisition board.
• Acquiring experimental data in EXCEL through a USB port.
• A tutorial on using the Fast Fourier Transform in EXCEL.
• A tutorial on engineering and scientific applications of the Fast Fourier
Transform using EXCEL’s functions and operators.
What’s new in the Second Edition
! More workbooks to demonstrate EXCEL’s features.
! Frequently-asked questions (FAQs) with answers.
! More examples from across engineering and scientific disciplines.
Preface ix

! Expanded explanations of integration methods.

! More matrix methods and examples.
! Added emphasis on documenting worksheets using Comment notes.
! More examples and explanations for solving differential equations.
! Use of new features in EXCEL 2002 (Microsoft OFFICE XP).

Student laboratories have evolved from the read-the-meter format to

computer-assisted data acquisition. EXCEL is ideal for laboratories at all levels
because it is easy to use and it is installed on most computers. Most student
software will export data to spreadsheets. PASCO Scientific (Science
Workshop), National Instruments (LabVIEW and MEASURE), and Vernier
Software (Multi-Purpose Laboratory Interface for Windows, Data Logger) have
built-in analysis tools, but exporting the data to EXCEL gives the student and
instructor more analysis power. EXCEL can not only acquire data and automate
experiments, but it can generate signals and control experiments locally and
worldwide, if desired, over the Internet.
Some of the software mentioned above have the Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT) as part of their programs, but importing the raw data to EXCEL gives the
student more flexibility, a feeling of being in control, and more of an
appreciation for the process. In addition, spreadsheet graphs of publication
quality and consistent format are easily included in laboratory reports composed
on a word processor. This helps to develop personal communication skills.
Internet connections
The Internet is a great resource for engineers and scientists. Appendix 2 and the
Bibliography make it easy for you to connect to useful information on the
Internet. Just insert the CD that came with this book, open one of the HTML files
and click on any web site of interest.
EXCEL 2002 is intimately connected to the Internet, and it is easy to import
data from Internet sites. You can also routinely collect data from remote
experiments in laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and even spacecraft and
other planets. If you need to replace the data often to keep it current the
refreshable Web queries now available in EXCEL 2002 make that task easy.
If you are connected to the Internet, just click on http://www.microsoft.com .
This web site has free downloads from Microsoft.

How to use this book

EXCEL versions
The latest version of EXCEL (in Microsoft OFFICE XP) is required for full
functionality of the workbooks on the CD. However, this book and its workbooks
can be used effectively with previous versions of EXCEL. The oldest version that
I recommend using is EXCEL 97.
x Preface

EXCEL 2002 can import workbooks composed using earlier versions of

EXCEL and other spreadsheets such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro.
Turn on your computer and insert the CD that comes with this book. Start
EXCEL and load a file of your choice. You’ll find the most effective use of this
book is when you work with it at your computer, and follow the discussion by
exploring worksheets on your monitor as you read about them.
This book is designed for a short course or as supplementary material for a
longer course. Most of this book is for beginners and it does not cover every
feature in EXCEL. A few sections and exercises, and the last two chapters, may
appeal to more advanced students; these are marked with the symbol ✪.

Chapter 1 Getting Started

Chapter 2 Exploring EXCEL
Chapter 3 EXCEL’s Graphics
Chapter 4 Quick-Start Math
The first four chapters are essential.
Chapter 5 Differentiation and Integration
Sections 5.1–5.2 cover basic numerical differentiation and
integration. The remaining sections cover two special tools in
EXCEL (Moving Average and Exponential Smoothing) and other
filtering techniques.
Chapter 6 EXCEL’s Engineering Functions
This chapter is a survey of all operations in EXCEL’s
Engineering Functions category, and matrix methods.
Chapter 7 Differential Equations
This could be omitted in a short course. There are two interactive
finite-element workbooks for Laplace’s equation, in addition to
methods for ordinary differential equations.
Chapter 8 Analysis ToolPak
This is a survey of some of the most-used analysis tools in
EXCEL.
Chapter 9 EXCEL in the Lab
This chapter is about applications of EXCEL in the student lab
with two popular educational data acquisition packages and one
industrial-strength EXCEL software add-in from National
Instruments.
Chapter 10 Complex Math
This could be omitted for beginning students, but Chapters 11
and 12 depend on Chapter 10. This chapter is on the CD.
Preface xi

Chapter 11 Analysis ToolPak: Fast Fourier Transform ✪

This shows how to use the most powerful tool in EXCEL, the FFT
(Fast Fourier Transform). Some student lab software packages
have the FFT, but you can do more and get better results using
EXCEL. Workbooks for FFT tutorial, windowing, aliasing,
frequency scaling, and power spectral density are included. This
chapter is on the CD in an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. The Acrobat
Reader is included on the CD.
Chapter 12 Analysis ToolPak: FFT Applications ✪
This chapter shows applications of the FFT, including
convolution, deconvolution, cross-correlation function, system
identification, coherence function and SNR function. Chapter 12
is on the CD in an Acrobat PDF file. The latest version of
Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free at www.adobe.com.

More exercises for each chapter are in folders on the CD. When you finish
this book you will have a set of skills that will probably last you throughout your
career, because future versions of EXCEL will build on these basics.
Advanced mathematics programs also work with EXCEL. For example,
MATLAB (www.mathworks.com) has EXCEL LINK and EXCEL BUILDER for creating
MATLAB-based add-ins for EXCEL. MATHEMATICA (www.wolfram.com) has
MATHEMATICA LINK FOR EXCEL, and MATHCAD (www.mathsoft.com) has a
component for data I/O with EXCEL. Waterloo MAPLE (www.maplesoft.com) has
an EXCEL add-in.

Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance, guidance, and patience of the
people at John Wiley & Sons. In alphabetical order, my thanks go to Mary Beth
Bohman, Monique Calello, Jack Drucker, editor Joseph P. Hayton, Katherine
Hepburn, Mary Moran, Kenneth Santor, Eric Shivak, and Lisa Van Horn.
For the First Edition I am also pleased to acknowledge the assistance of
Professors William Beckwith (Clemson University), Melanie Bengtson (North
Dakota State University), Daniel A. Gulino (Ohio University) and Georg F.
Mauer (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) in reviewing the manuscript.
For the Second Edition I would like to thank Dr. Roy Fitzgerald López
Carrera, Professor Darrell G. Fontane (Colorado State University), Dr. Calvin
Johnson, Professor Patrick J. Jordan (University of Canterbury, New Zealand),
Professor J. C. Simonis (University of Texas-San Antonio), Professor Garry W.
Warren (University of Alabama), and at John Wiley & Sons, Simon Durkin,
Bonnie Kubat and Angie Vennerstrom. Again, special thanks go to editor Joseph
P. Hayton.
I am very grateful for the suggestions, comments, and encouragement from
xii Preface

Dr. Lawrence Edward Bloch, Dr. Robert Dressler, Professor Donald T. Haynie
(Louisiana Tech University), Curt Lorenc, and Janis Walters. Thanks also go to
Dr. Daniel H. Fylstra of Frontline Systems (www.solver.com) for permission to
include the Solver tutorials on the CD, National Instruments (www.ni.com),
PASCO Scientific (www.pasco.com), and Vernier Software (www.vernier.com).

Contacts and Updates

For information on related books, go to the web site:
http://www.wiley.com
For technical support concerning the CD go to the web site:
http://www.wiley.com/techsupport
or e-mail [email protected]
For updates and new downloads for this book, go to the web site:
http://sylvanbloch.hypermart.net/
If you have suggestions or find a correction that is not listed, please send it to
the e-mail address in the Contact section at the web site.
Excel!
Sylvan Charles Bloch
Tampa, Florida

The science of calculation also is indispensable as far as the extraction of the

square and cube roots; algebra as far as the quadratic equations; and the use of
logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases; but all beyond these is but a
luxury; a delicious luxury indeed; but not to be indulged in by one who is to have
a profession to follow for his sustenance.
Thomas Jefferson
1743 – 1826
Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship which
grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out
depends upon what you put in . . .
Thomas Henry Huxley
1869
. . . when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in
numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when
you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and
unsatisfactory kind . . .
Lord Kelvin
in a lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers, May 3, 1883

If engineers would read the manual, the world would be a better place.
Andrew S. Grove
CEO, Intel Corporation, 1999