Graphical Analysis (G.A.) Version 3.0

Getting To know you activity

Part I:  Plot your walking lab data on GA.  Plot distance vs. time.  Time goes in the x column, Distance goes in the y column:

            Then, do the following:

·        Double Click on “x” and “y” at the top of the columns and change them to (time) and (distance) respectively.  Be sure to also input their units.

·        Click once on your graph to “highlight it”.  Then, click on the f(x) curve fit button at the top of the screen and do a curve fit of your line (if you are doing the walking lab, this is most likely a linear fit).  Hit “Try Fit” and if you like it, then click “OK”.    Hint:  If you hold your mouse over the buttons at the top of the screen for a second, it will tell you what it does.  What is the slope of this line?  ________________

·        How to title your graph:  Double click at the top of your graph and you will get a window which is entitled “Graph Options”.  Here you can type the title of your graph.

·        How to make a calculated column:  Go up to DATA – New Calculated Column.  For the name, type:  time^2.  Next, click on the arrow next to Variables (columns) and select “time”.  This is the column you made earlier for the x axis.

                Put ^2 after “time” in the equations window so it looks like:  “time”^2

           Click OK

         Notice that you also have other options located under a pull-down menu called “functions”.  Take a look at these functions.  You should see things like COS, SIN, Square root….etc.  We’ll use those later

·        How to make a new graph:  Highlight the one graph you have on the screen now by clicking on it one time.  Then, shrink it by moving the arrow of your mouse to the lower right hand corner of the graph and dragging it across the screen.

            Go to INSERT – Graph

             You can move your graphs or data around the field by holding down on the

             CTRL key (or the Apple key on a Mac) and holding down your left mouse button

             when you are over the graph or data table.  Try it, it’ll knock your socks off!

·        Click on the x-axis of the new graph window (between the two arrows) and select “time^2” from the pull-down arrow you will see in the box titled “X axis options”.

·        Click on the y-axis of the new graph window and select the box for “distance”

Once you have done all of these steps and have arranged your data table and both graphs in a nice and neat fashion, call over your teacher to inspect your work!

Part II:  Finding the area under a curve

Put the following data into the computer in a NEW file.  No need to save the old one once I’ve seen it.

X         Y

0          0

4          5

6          0

7          3

10        3

12        0

            Title x “time” with units of sec

            Title y “velocity” with units of m/sec

·        Then, click and drag the mouse across the entire graph from left to right.

·        Then, go up to the button up top which when you point your mouse over it it will say “integral”.  Click on it!

·        Did you get a little window with 28.5 in it?  If so, you did it right.  If not, and the whole thing didn’t change color, perhaps you didn’t select all of the curve.  You can drag your mouse over more of it and you can see it all fill in right before your very eyes! 

·         Try this now on graph paper and see if you can see how the computer got 28.5

Call over your teacher to look at it when you are all done.

Part III:  Using the functions for SIN and COS

Put the following data into a NEW file

X

0

90

180

270

360

• Change the X column to the word “degrees”  the units are “deg”
• Go to FILE – Settings for Untitled
• Choose Degrees (the default of GA is RADIANS, so you need to do this each time you use GA if you want to calculate in Degrees)
• Make a new Calculated column and call it:  SIN of Degrees – no units necessary
• Choose the Function “Sin()”
• Choose the Variables (columns) “degrees” and then click OK
• You should get the following results:  0, 1, 0, -1, -0.  If you don’t then you probably forgot to go to FILE – Settings for Untitled and change it to degrees.  You can still do that now and it should auto-correct your column for you.
• Now try the same thing with COS and see if you get a column with 1, 0, -1, -0, 1.

Call over your teacher when you are finished with this task.  

Part IV:  Finding tangent to a line

Type the following into the x column

X

1

2

3

4

5

6

• Make a calculated column and title it X^2
• Choose X from the Variables (columns) pull-down menu
• Square X by typing ^2 after the "x" you see in the equation box
• Double click on the Y axis of your graph and select "X^2" for this axis
• You should see a parabolic line on your graph
• Take your mouse to the top of the screen and hold it over the button that says "tangent".  Click on it.
• Bring your mouse down to the parabolic line and notice that as you "Cruise" along the line, it will tell you the tangent slope of the line in a box at the upper left hand corner of your graph.  This is really COOL!
• Call over your teacher when you have finished this task.

Part V:  Importing graphs into MS Word

• Make your graph small by clicking on it with your mouse and then “shrinking” it by dragging the mouse to the upper left hand side of the graph.  It doesn’t have to be very tiny, just moderately small.
• Go up to EDIT-COPY
• Open an MS Word document and EDIT-PASTE the graph right into a new document. 
• You should be able to make it bigger or smaller by first clicking on it to “highlight” it and then click/drag your mouse at its lower right hand corner.
• Notice that you can also paste in a data set.  Simply click on it to “highlight” it and then do EDIT-COPY and EDIT-PASTE.

Call over your teacher when you are finished with this task.