Graphs and Gradients

Graphs are a great way to show your data and clearly identify trends. As a physicist, you will find that it is often useful to draw lines of best fit and calculate the gradient of such lines. This can easily be achieved in Excel, as demonstrated below in the Excel guides.

LINEST is a built-in Excel function that computes the gradient, y-intercept and corresponding errors of a straight-line graph. This function is commonly used in Level 1, with the use of Python becoming increasingly frequent as your skills develop. However, across all levels as you should always check throughout your experiments that your data is giving reasonable results and Excel is a great tool to do this!

Using EXCEL

Try putting your Excel skills to the test by completing the exercise below to get the same graph and values! To get you started, you can download the Excel Exercises

If you struggled to complete the task above have a look at the Graphs and Gradients step by step guide and try again.