Saturday, November 19, 2016

Apologia Physics: Excel or Google Sheets

Today in class we learned how to enter physics problems and formulas into either Excel or Google Sheets, which is the Google version of spreadsheets.  (Before we tackled Excel, we tried to troubleshoot Vernier's Physics app.  We need to put this on hold, for now.  In order to figure out the intervals between points captured of the missile's parabola, we need the angles and heights.  In other words, we'll come back to Vernier's app after Thanksgiving.). Back to Excel.  Rob used the tutorial above and entered all of the data, inserted the formulas, etc. first in Excel.  Next, he reentered all of the data into Google's sheets.  We had two laptops and a desktop.  We tried entering data and formulas online into Google sheets on an iPad.   Not. At. All. Easy.  The Google sheets are similar to Excel.  So, as long as we used the laptops or desktop, we only had to contend with inexperience with Excel.  It literallly took an hour to set up the data and enter the formulas together.  Here's why this exercise is useful.  As you're manipulating the data, you still need to understand the relationships among velocity and velocity y.  I'm going to try to use the Excel app for iPad to see if it's any better.
Update: The Excel app is a bit better and data can be successfully entered.  But, boy is it awful!

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