Vernier Graphical Analysis 3 User Manual

Graphical Analysis 3.0

COPYRIGHT © 2002

Vernier Software & Technology

ISBN# 1-929075-16-2

Version 03/01/02

Vernier Software & Technology

13979 SW Millikan Way

Beaverton, Oregon 97005-2886

Phone [phone]

FAX [phone]

www.vernier.com

[e-mail]

Graphical Analysis 3.0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL............................................................................................ 5

USER’S MANUAL............................................................................................................... 7

General Description of the Program and online Help ............................................................................... 7

Fast Start (If you don’t read manuals) ........................................................................................................ 8

Using the Graphical Analysis Program.......................................................................................................8

Typical Screen............................................................................................................................................. 8

Objects ........................................................................................................................................................ 9

Entering and Editing Data ........................................................................................................................... 9

The Data Browser .....................................................................................................................................10

Editing the Axis Labels, Units, and Graph Title ......................................................................................... 10

Changing Display Features of a Graph ..................................................................................................... 10

Zooming In on a Graph .............................................................................................................................11

Analysis Tools ........................................................................................................................................... 12

Displaying a Range of the Graph .............................................................................................................. 12

Creating a New Column of Data................................................................................................................ 13

Modifying Data and Its Display.................................................................................................................. 13

Changing What Is Graphed on an Axis..................................................................................................... 14

Creating a New Graph............................................................................................................................... 14

Grouping Objects ......................................................................................................................................14

Multiple Data Sets ..................................................................................................................................... 14

Renaming Data Sets ................................................................................................................................. 15

Printing Graphs or Data............................................................................................................................. 15

Transferring Graphs and Data to Other Applications ................................................................................ 15

Transferring Data from Other Applications ............................................................................................... 15

Saving Information ....................................................................................................................................16

Quit............................................................................................................................................................ 16

Other Operations ........................................................................................................................................16

TEACHER’S MANUAL ..................................................................................................... 19

Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................ 19

Using Graphical Analysis in Science Classes ......................................................................................... 19

Graphing Data Collected with Texas Instruments Graphing Calculators, LabPro, CBL 2, and

CBL ........................................................................................................................................................... 20

Sample Data Files ....................................................................................................................................... 22

General Notes.............................................................................................................................................. 25

Questions about Graphical Analysis ........................................................................................................27

Graphical Analysis 3.0

How to Use this Manual

This manual is divided into two main sections: the User’s Manual and the Teacher’s Guide. The User’s Manual
includes a quick introduction to the most important features of the program. The Teacher’s Guide contains computer
requirements, how to install the software, details on importing data, suggested uses, and descriptions of the sample data.

Some familiarity with the use of Windows and/or Macintosh computers and a mouse is assumed in this manual.

If this is the first time you are using the Graphical Analysis program, look over the User’s Manual. Refer to the
online help when you want to learn more about other features of the program.

If you want to learn how to install Graphical Analysis on your computer, read “Getting Started” at the beginning of
the Teacher’s Guide. This section explains how to install the Graphical Analysis software.

If you have a particular question about program operation, Graphical Analysis has extensive online help describing
every menu item, every dialog box, and every type of object. To obtain help, choose Graphical Analysis Help from the
Help menu. You can also double-click on an object and select Help from the dialog box.

Tutorials covering popular commands are provided. After you have installed and started Graphical Analysis, choose
Open from the File Menu to access them.

5

Graphical Analysis 3.0 is a copyrighted program by Vernier Software & Technology. The program does not have any
copy protection and back-up copies may be made using standard procedures. Purchasers of Graphical Analysis 3.0 are
permitted to make as many copies of the program as they wish for use within their own high school or college
department. This includes a student site license for home use. Making copies for any other purpose is prohibited.

Graphical Analysis 3.0 was programmed by Garth Upshaw, Christopher Corbell, Jessica Fink, Stephen Beardslee, and
Mary Dygert and is copyrighted (© 2002) by Vernier Software & Technology. The program was designed by Garth
Upshaw, Christopher Corbell, David L. Vernier, and Rick Sorensen. The Help system and manual were written by Erik
Schmidt. The manual is copyrighted (© 2002) by Vernier Software & Technology.

Vernier LabPro is trademarked by Vernier Software & Technology.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Calculator-Based Laboratory, CBL 2, CBL, and TI-GRAPH LINK are trademarks of Texas Instruments, Inc.

Macintosh and Apple are registered trademarks of the Apple Computer, Inc.

Vernier Software & Technology

13979 SW Millikan Way

Beaverton, Oregon 97005-2886

Phone [phone]

FAX [phone]

www.vernier.com

[e-mail]

6

Graphical Analysis 3.0

USER’S MANUAL

General Description of the Program and online Help

Graphical Analysis is a user-friendly program that allows you to easily graph and analyze data. Data may be manually
entered from the keyboard, pasted from the clipboard, or retrieved from a file saved on disk. You can import data from
Texas Instruments TI-73, TI-82, TI-83, TI-83 Plus, TI-85, TI-86, TI-89, TI-92 and TI-92 Plus graphing calculators and
LabPro®, Calculator-Based Laboratory 2 (CBL 2), or CBL interfaces, using a TI-GRAPH LINK cable.
Graphical Analysis is also a document creator, with the ability to include several pages in one document. Data can be
displayed in spreadsheet form and as a graph. You have several options on the scaling and style of graphs. Powerful data
analysis tools are provided, including curve fits, derivatives, tangent lines, integrals, smoothing, FFTs, and histograms.
Graphical Analysis allows you to create new columns that are based on other data, much as you might do with a
spreadsheet program. You can easily copy your data and graph to a word processing or spreadsheet program via the
clipboard. Many sample files are included for your experimentation.

The Graphical Analysis program has been designed with overlapping “objects” (Cartesian graphs, text boxes, tables,
etc.). We chose this approach for added user modification. As you create new objects, you can easily move them about
the screen or opt to have them automatically arranged to maximize screen space. You can adjust the size of objects by
dragging the handles that frame them. Graphical Analysis is also a document creator, with the ability to include several
pages in one document.

In previous versions of Graphical Analysis, the emphasis has been on teaching students to modify their data with
mathematical operations. They would then create and analyze graphs looking for linear relationships. This approach is
still supported in this program and explained in the “Graphing Modified Data” section of the User’s Guide. In addition,
curve fitting functions have been improved. Students can easily fit a curve to data and quickly test various mathematical
models. Curve fitting is discussed in the “Curve Fitting” section of the User’s Guide.

Online Help

This manual will give you an introduction to Graphical Analysis 3.0. Much more information about this program
is included in the online help. You can access the online help in several ways:

• To get a brief description of the toolbar buttons, move the mouse over them and read the short message.

• To obtain help, choose Graphical Analysis Help from the Help menu. You can also right-click (Windows) or

ctrl-click (Mac) on an object to call up a contextual menu that contains Help. In addition, you can double­click on an object and select Help from the dialog box.

• Choosing Graphical Analysis Help from the Help menu launches the online Help. You will be provided with

a list of five general help topics. These topics include Getting Started, How to (perform certain operations),
Menus, Objects, and Screen Hotspots. You also have access to the Search feature of the Help system. Click
on the Search tab in the Help program. If you opt to use the Index tab, a box will appear from which you can
type in a keyword. As you type in a word, the search list will automatically scroll through an alphabetical list
of topics.

Windows requirements:

• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.x, Windows ME, and Windows XP

• 133 MHz Pentium processor or better

• 16MB physical RAM plus free hard disk space (for virtual memory)

• Color monitor (>=256 colors)

Macintosh requirements:

• MacOS 8.x, MacOS 9.x, MacOS X

• 66 MHz PowerPC processor or better

• 16MB machine RAM, 8MB for the application partition

Graphical Analysis for Windows USER’S MANUAL

Fast Start (If you don’t read manuals)

Many computer users do not believe in manuals. If you are one of them, we offer this information to get you
started with Graphical Analysis.

• Double-click the Graphical Analysis icon.

• Click the Close button in the Tip of the Day box to continue.

• Enter data into the data table.

• Double-click on the graph to change its features.

• Click on the numbers at the ends of the axes to change the scaling.

• Experiment with the toolbar buttons.

• Choose Graph, Additional Graphs, Table, etc. from the Insert menu to add new objects. Move the objects

around or choose Auto Arrange from the Page menu to rearrange the page layout.

• Try the various menus. Have fun experimenting. If you have questions, check the extensive online help

guide.

• To import data from a TI Graphing Calculator, connect the TI-GRAPH LINK™ cable to the computer and

calculator. Choose Import from TI Calculator from the File menu.

Using the Graphical Analysis Program

Typical Screen

Start up the program by double-clicking on the Graphical Analysis icon. Click the OK button in the Tips box to

continue. You will be presented with a blank data table and graph. A typical Graphical Analysis screen is shown below.
(The data and graph was taken from the Transpiration.ga3 file included with this program.) This screen includes three
different objects with a menu and a toolbar at the top. Important features of the program have been identified on this
figure.

8

Graphical Analysis for Windows USER’S MANUAL

Objects

Graphical Analysis provides different objects that can be displayed on the screen in an overlapping format. Numerous
combinations allow you to customize the presentation.

The Page Object is the foundation upon which you can add, modify, and delete objects. As you work with the Graphical
Analysis program, you can choose from six types of objects:

• Data Table objects use a table to display data in the same way a spreadsheet does.

• Graph objects plot data on a scatter graph or bar graph.

• Histogram objects plot the number of occurrences of the various data values.

• Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Graph objects plot the frequency components of a column of data.

• Text objects display notes about the data or graphs.

• Oval and rectangle objects are especially useful for annotation and documentation where an area of a graph or data

may be highlighted or framed.

When the program starts, the screen will have a Data Table object on the left and a Graph object on the right. A small
Text object will be displayed in the lower left. You can make an object active by simply clicking it with the mouse.
More than one object can be selected and active at a time. This can be done by holding down the Shift key and clicking
the objects with the mouse.

Entering and Editing Data

The first step in using Graphical Analysis is usually entering a table of data. Most data

tables will have two “manually entered” columns. The blank data table to the right has
been set up so that Time (X-axis) and Pressure (Y-axis) can be manually entered into
the first two columns. To enter the time and pressure data, simply click a cell and start
typing. When you have completed an entry, press the <enter/return> key to move to the
next available blank data cell in the next column (You can set the Enter/Return key to
move to the cell below in File/Preferences). After each data pair has been entered, the
corresponding data point will be graphed. As you make entries, the program will check
to make sure that you have entered a valid number. If your entry is not valid, the cell
will not be updated.

1

The figure to the right shows a completed data table. Editing a cell is easy. Use the
mouse or keyboard to select the cell you want to change. To move horizontally with the
keyboard, use <Enter/Return>, <tab>, or arrow keys. To move vertically within the
data table, use <enter/return> (if it is set as such in File/Preferences) or up or down
arrow keys. Once the cell is selected, edit the cell by either typing in a new value, or
using the left and right arrow keys and the delete keys to change a limited number of
digits in the entry. To accept the changes and automatically adjust the graph, press
<enter>, <tab>, or either the up or down arrow. (The changes will also be accepted if
you click another cell with the mouse.)

If you are entering numbers in scientific notation, use the “E” or “e” key as in the examples below:

To enter this number: Type this:

3.5 x 10

-2.4 x 10

5.5 x 10

4

-12

3

-2.4 e 3

5.5 E -12

3.5 E 4

1The range of numbers allowed to be entered is –25 x 10

25

to 25 x 1025absolute value.

9

Graphical Analysis for Windows USER’S MANUAL

The Data Browser

The Data Browser represents all the data available to the current document, not simply the
data from the current graph, table, or page. All data will always be accessible in the browser,
regardless of whether it’s visible in the current page, the current table or graph.

Data Browser features:

• Drag-and-drop from the Data Browser to objects such as tables and graphs. Drag a

column to a y- or x-axis to plot it there; drag a data set to a table to make it visible there.

• When the Data Browser is “Active” (it’s been clicked on) its appearance changes to

reflect its active state. Edit menu items like Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, and Select All,
will apply to the selected items within the Data Browser.

• Options and commands associated with a particular column or data set will be accessible

in the Data Browser via right-click (control-click on Mac) for options and commands.

Editing the Axis Labels, Units, and Graph Title

When the program starts, the labels for the horizontal and vertical axes are simply X and Y, and no units are displayed.

To change this, either double-click the label at the top of the column or choose Column Options from the Data Menu
and enter the new label and unit in the dialog that appears. Click the OK button to accept the changes. To change the
title of the graph, either double-click on the graph or choose Graph Options from the Options menu and enter a new title
in the dialog that appears.

Changing Display Features of a Graph

To change a graph, choose Graph Options from the Options Menu. The Graph Options tab allows you to control how
your data are plotted. The other tab, Axes Options, allows you to choose which data columns are plotted and how the
graph is scaled. You can also bring up this box by double-clicking on the graph.

Title: You can add and change the title text and its color. The title will be placed at the top of the graph.

Examine:

Interpolate: To use interpolation, you must first create a curve fit or linear fit on a graph. When you select

Interpolate, the helper object connected to the linear fit line or curve fit will extend to show the coordinates at
the current point. By moving the mouse along the curve, you can read values from the graph.
Mouse Position and Delta: A display of the current cursor position will be given. When you hold the mouse
button down and drag the mouse pointer over the graph, the X and Y differences (delta) appear at the bottom of
the graph.
Legend: Displays a legend using Data Column labels in the graph object.

10