How do I make a parabola using Excel?

[Guest]

I am supposed to make a graph for my biology class. The teacher wants a graph
that "doesn't connect points" "find best fit line" "round sloping curve"
"parabolic"

I don't quite know where to start on how to make this graph, or what kind of
graph this would be.

 

[Tushar Mehta]

I am not sure what exactly the teacher wants. Does s/he want or not
want 'best fit line?' What does "round sloping curve" mean?

In XL, one cannot create a chart without connecting points.

To get the equation of a parabola enter 'parabola' (w/o the quotes)
into google.

To plot a function see
PLOT manager
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/software/plot_manager/index.html

The add-in computes a number of points for the function and then plots
the points.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

 

[Guest]

In XL, one cannot create a chart without connecting points.

Yes you can!!

 

[Guest]

I am supposed to make a graph for my biology class. The teacher wants a
graph

that "doesn't connect points"

Choose the chart type as XY Scatter. You can then choose whether to have the
points connected with lines or not.

"find best fit line"

Right click on the data series in the chart and choose Add Trendline. For a
straight Line fit, choose the Linear option.

"round sloping curve"

Not sure what you mean here?

"parabolic"

Parabolic curves are generated from quadratic equations.
try calculating x^2 + x for various values of x from -2 to +1 for example.

I don't quite know where to start on how to make this graph, or what kind of
graph this would be.

Put your data values into an excel worksheet, x-values in one column,
y-values in another column. Select both columns and click on the Chart icon,
choose the chart type as XY scatter and click Finish.

 

[Tushar Mehta]

Yes you can!!

And, that would be how?

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi,

Yes you an create a series without a line connecting the dots.
But you can not add a trendline if the dots are not connected - or more
accurately part of the same series.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guest]

In XL, one cannot create a chart without connecting points.

And, that would be how?

See my separate reply to Heathe for how to create the chartr. If you have
already created an XY chart with lines you can easily remove the lines.
Simply select a series and choose Format Data Series. This will allow you to
set various properties for the lines connecting the points, e.g. you can
change the thickness and colour as well as turning off the lines.

 

[Tushar Mehta]

See my separate reply to Heathe for how to create the chartr. If you have
already created an XY chart with lines you can easily remove the lines.
Simply select a series and choose Format Data Series. This will allow you to
set various properties for the lines connecting the points, e.g. you can
change the thickness and colour as well as turning off the lines.

Oh, you mean points w/o lines. Sorry, but that's old news.
Adding/removing/customizing lines is trivial and adds little to this
exercise. I interpreted the OP's assignment as how to get XL to plot
y=f(x) w/o converting the function into a set of points.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions