1B40 COMPUTING: WEEK 4 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London

This week you should complete the following tasks:

• Excel task 4 (error propagation)
• Excel task 5 (exercises on error propagation)

The lectures on data analysis discuss how the error on the sum or product of two independent variables is related to the individual errors. In exercise Excel-4 you investigate the "error propagation" results in a practical way - subject to the usual statistical fluctuations!
In Excel-5 you apply the error propagation formulae to data satisfying different forms, i.e. linear, logarithmic and sine functions, from (a) a compound pendulum experiment, (b) a chemical reaction, (c) an X-ray scattering experiment. You will need to download the spreadsheet reaction_data.xls.

This week's lecture discussed the propagation of errors of measurement.
Next week's lecture will cover the least-squares fitting procedure.