maths problem i think

[Sunil Patel]

I have the following in range A1 to B6

25-03-04 1
26-03-04 1.0271
27-03-04 1.023
28-03-04 1.0457
29-03-04 1.0684
30-03-04 0.9775


Can excel give me the gradient of the straight line that best fits this
data? i.e. trendline's gradient

help appreciated.

 

[Jerry W. Lewis]

Excel can attempt to fit many models to this data. What model did you
have in mind? I would start by plotting the data, were you would see
that a simple straight line (which you seem to be requesting) is an
extremely poor fit to the data.

Chart|Add Trendline has many modeling options that may or may not be
appropriate for your data. The coefficients for these models can be
calculated on the worksheet using LINEST or LOGEST, or you can use David
Braden's code to extract coefficients directly from the chart

http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

If none of these modeling options describe the model that you have in
mind, then you will have to explain your model before we can answer your
question.

Jerry