A Gaussian function has many different purposes in engineering although most people probably recognize it as a “bell curve”. Most commonly, it can be used to describe a normal distribution of measurements. Sometimes it’s necessary to fit a Gaussian function to data, so this post will teach you how to perform a Gaussian fit in …
Unlike simultaneous linear equations, simultaneous non-linear equations cannot be solved using linear algebra. However, we can extend the concept of using Goal Seek from solving a single implicit equation to solving systems of nonlinear equations. In our worksheet, we’ll set up equations for flow in an open channel and use them to find the depth …
Solving Systems of Simultaneous Nonlinear Equations in Excel Read More »
In engineering, you’ll encounter data than doesn’t follow a linear trend. In those cases, you’ll need to use nonlinear methods. Excel has a few different options for fitting these curves. The worksheet contains pressure and flow data for a valve in a piping system. Select the data and create an XY scatter chart. You’ll see …
You saw in the pressure drop example that LINEST can be used to find the best fit between a single array of y-values and multiple arrays of x-values. In that example, we raised the x-values to the first and second power, essentially creating two arrays of x-values. That characteristic allows LINEST to do multiple linear …
We can extend the concept of finite differences into VBA if we know the function and aren’t constrained to dealing with tabular data. For example, let’s assume that the equation below defines the position of an object: We can calculate the velocity using finite differences in VBA. Open the VBA editor with Alt-F11. Right-click the …
Evaluating Derivatives of Equations in Excel with VBA Read More »
Excel also can perform a regressions with a function. The function LINEST can find the equation of a best fit line through data. LINEST uses the least squares method to fit a line or curve to some data that you provide. It returns back the coefficients that describe the line or curve to best fit …
If you ever want to modify a named range because you’ve made a mistake or you want to assign a different cell to the variable, you can use the Name Manager. Go to the Formulas tab and select Name Manager. There you’ll see all the cells that have been assigned a name. The current value …
Managing and Adding Named Cells in an Excel Worksheet Read More »
Excel features many of the common mathematical functions that you’ll encounter in engineering: logarithms, exponentials, square roots and factorials. This section covers three example problems that use these functions. Worksheet 03f is set up to calculate true strain from engineering strain data collected on a tensile test machine. The equation for true strain is: where …
LN, LOG, LOG10, EXP, SQRT, and FACT Functions in Excel Read More »
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