ENGG1801

Engineering Computing

Lecture 1-2
Excel Basics
Semester 1, 2017
School of Information Technologies
The University of Sydney, Australia
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/courses/engg1801
Jason Chan
j.chan@sydney.edu.au
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 Semester 1, 2017 Schedule
Week Date Lecture topics Notice
1 6 – 10 Mar Introduction, Excel basics
Part 1 –
Excel

2 13 – 17 Mar Functions, Plots, Solving equations, File I/O

3 20 – 24 Mar Matrix algebra Lab Exam 1 (5%), No Wednesday lecture
4 27 – 31 Mar Matlab basics, If statements, Arrays
5 3 – 7 Apr Loops
Matlab Basics
Part 2 –

6 No Friday labs (Good Friday holiday),

10 – 14 Apr Functions
Extra “Lab 6’s” on Tuesday - Wednesday
Mid-Semester Break
No Tuesday lecture (ANZAC Day holiday),
7 24 – 28 Apr Functions
Extra “Lab 6’s” on Monday - Wednesday
8 1 – 5 May Character strings, Text & File I/O Lab Exam 2 (20%)
Matlab Applications

9 8 – 12 May 2-D and 3-D plotting, Surface plots

Part 3 –

10 15 – 19 May Matrix algebra

11 22 – 26 May Images, Movies
12 29 May – 2 Jun Interpolation and curve fitting No Tuesday lecture
13 5 – 9 Jun Help for the Final Exam Lab Exam 3 (20%), No Tuesday lecture
Student vacation (stuvac)
Exam 19 – 30 Jun --- Final Exam (50%)

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 What will I learn today?
• Microsoft Excel is the most commonly
used spreadsheet
• We will be using Microsoft Excel 2013

• Excel Basics
– How to use Excel to do the simplest things
– How to solve some substantial problems
using Excel

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 Microsoft Excel
• You’ve probably used spreadsheets like
Excel before
• In ENGG1801, you will become much
more powerful by learning extra features
– Define and solve equations / functions
– Curve fitting
– Write basic code to perform complex
calculations

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 Spreadsheets
• Before electronic spreadsheets,
spreadsheets were on actual sheets of
paper
• The 1st electronic visual spreadsheet for
PC’s contained up to 5 columns and 20
rows of data

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VisiCalc (1st visual spreadsheet)

http://www.bricklin.com

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Advertisement for VisiCalc

http://www.bricklin.com

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 Excel is powerful
• Calculators typically handle up to ±1099
• Excel can handle up to 9.9999×10307

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 Starting Excel
• Click (in order):
–
–

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 Formatting
• You can change the appearance of cells,
making your results clearer
– Cell color
– Text color
– Cell size
– Cell borders

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 Precision
• Formatting can affect the apparent
precision (appearance) of numbers
– Numbers stored with 15 digit precision
– Number of digits displayed
depends on cell size
and format
– Too many digits to fit in
a cell will show ####

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 Formats for engineering
• There are many standard formats for
numbers in Excel
• The speed of light is c = 299 792 458 m/s
Format in Excel Represented number
A number 299 792 458 299 792 458
Scientific Notation 3.00E+08 3.00 x 108
Engineering Notation 299.8E+06 299.8 x 106

• In Engineering notation, the power of 10 is

a multiple of 3
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 Formulas
• A formula is an expression in which Excel
will perform calculations / operations
• Formulas start with the = sign
• Without the =
sign, we just
have a value

• Type into cell C1: =(A1+B1)*2

• Type into cell D3: =1/(C1-C3)
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 Copying to other cells
• Formulas can also be copied to other cells

• In this example, we have typed a formula

into cell C2: =A2+B2

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 Copying to other cells
• We want to continue finding the sums on
rows 3-5
• Click on cell C2, then click on the little
black square on
the bottom right
corner of the
cell, then drag
down to cell C5

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 Copying to other cells
• The formula in C2 (=A2+B2) will be
“copied” to cells C3 to C5
• In C3, the formula will become =A3+B3
etc…

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 Copying to other cells
• The formula was not exactly copied, but
changed depending on where we copied it
to – this is called relative referencing

• C2: =A2+B2
• C3: =A3+B3
• C4: =A4+B4
• C5: =A5+B5
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 Copying to other cells
• Suppose we always want to use the same
cell A2 in different places (C2 to C5)
• So the correct formulas should be:

• C2: =A2+B2
• C3: =A2+B3
• C4: =A2+B4
• C5: =A2+B5
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 Copying to other cells
• But if we use relative referencing, then we
will get wrong results:

• C2: =A2+B2
• C3: =A3+B3
• C4: =A4+B4
• C5: =A5+B5
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 Copying to other cells
• We want row 2 of cell A2 in the formula
=A2+B2 to remain constant when we copy
the formula
• We put a $ sign
in front of the
row number so
that it doesn’t
change
• C2: =A$2+B2
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 Copying to other cells
• Now, when we copy the formula to other
cells, the 2 in A2 will not change
• This is called absolute referencing

• C2: =A$2+B2
• C3: =A$2+B3
• C4: =A$2+B4
• C5: =A$2+B5
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 Copying to other cells
• We can use a combination of relative and
absolute referencing
Cell What happens to cell
reference reference when copied
A2 Both row and column may change
A$2 Row 2 remains constant
$A2 Column A remains constant
$A$2 Row 2 and column A both remain constant

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 Variables
• We can give names to cells (at top left of
window) to make them easier to refer to
• These are called
variables
• Warning: Some
variable names are
not allowed, e.g.
cell references,
“r”, “c”, etc.
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 Variables
• To change or delete variable names
– Click on the
Formulas tab
(top of page)
– Click
Name Manager
– Select the variable
you want, then
click Edit or Delete

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 Practical Example
• Q) A ball is dropped off a cliff. Find the
distance travelled in 10 seconds.
• We use the
equation:
1 2
s  ut  at
2

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 Practical Example

1 2
s  ut  at
2

• Type into B4: =B1*B3 + 1/2*B2*B3^2

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 Practical Example

1 2
s  ut  at
2

• Or we can give variable names to cells B1

to B3 to make them much easier to use
• Then type into B4: =u*t + 1/2*a*t^2

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Refer to cells, don’t use raw values
• It would be incorrect to type into B4:
=0*10 + 1/2*9.8*10^2
• This gives the correct answer, but it is the
incorrect technique!
– If the value of a variable changes (e.g. initial
velocity, u), you now have to change many
places in your code, instead of just a cell
– It is unclear what the numbers represent,
because they are not stored in cells
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Refer to cells, don’t use raw values
• You should refer to (use) cells in formulas
• Do not use raw values in formulas
• Instead, only the raw value goes into a cell,
then you refer to that cell in your formula

• “Just because you got the right answer,

doesn’t mean that you did it correctly”

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 Variables
• Make formulas much easier to read
=B1*B3 + 1/2*B2*B3^2
=u*t + 1/2*a*t^2
• Reduce chance of making mistakes
– Absolute referencing if copied to other cells
• Save time
• No need to keep searching for the cell
reference
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 Functions
• A function takes input data and gives
back output data depending on the input
• Very similar to functions in maths:
f(n) = 3n + 2
• We can use the function by giving input:
f(2) f(-1)
• And the function gives us back an output:
f(2) = 3x2 + 2 f(-1) = 3x-1 + 2
=8 = -1
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 Functions
• In Excel, we use functions by giving input
data and it gives back output data
• E.g. we can use the SQRT() function,
which gives the square root of the input:
=SQRT(2)

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 Functions
• Some other functions:
SIN() ASIN() RADIANS() ROUND()
COS() ACOS() DEGREES() CEILING()
TAN() ATAN() ABS() FLOOR()

• By default, Excel deals with angles in

radians (not degrees)
• Note that we don’t need to know
how the function does its job,
we only need to know what it does
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 Practical Example
• Q) Find the roots of the quadratic equation
x  5x  6  0
2

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 Practical Example
• For any quadratic equation of the form:
ax  bx  c  0
2

we can use the quadratic formula:

b  b 2  4ac
x
2a
where b 2
 4ac is called the discriminant
whose value determines the number of
real roots
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 Practical Example

• First, assign your variables

• Let cell A3 be called “a”, B3 be “b”, and
C3 be “_c” (“c” cannot be used, slide 23)
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 Practical Example

• Then type into E3: =b^2 – 4*a*_c

• Assign cell E3 the variable “disc”

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 Practical Example

• B5: =(-b + SQRT(disc)) / (2*a)

• D5: =(-b – SQRT(disc)) / (2*a)

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 Another Practical Example
• Q) Let’s try a different quadratic equation:
x  2x  6  0
2

• Now we have
a problem
when there
aren’t 2 roots
(i.e.
discriminant ≤ 0)
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 Another Practical Example
• We want to do different things depending
on different conditions
– If there are 2 roots, we want one of them
displayed in D5
– But if there is
1 root or no
roots, we
want nothing
displayed in
D5
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 IF functions
• So we use an IF function:
=IF(disc>0, (-b–SQRT(disc))/(2*a), "")

• This means:
– If disc>0, then use (-b–SQRT(disc))/(2*a)
– If not disc>0, then use "" (nothing between
quotes means display nothing)
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 IF functions
• In our previous example, we no longer get
the #NUM! error when there are no roots
– disc = -20 ≤ 0, so "" (blank) is displayed

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 IF functions
• If we go back to our first example and
change b back to 5, the root displayed
– disc = 1 > 0, so (-b - SQRT(disc)) / (2*a)
is calculated

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 IF functions
• We can use IF functions to make our
spreadsheet handle all cases:
– E.g. If there isn’t a 2nd root, then we should
not even display “Root 2” in cell C5, etc.

Situation What to display

disc > 0 2 roots
disc = 0 1 root
disc < 0 0 roots
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 IF functions
• D5: =IF(disc>0, (-b - SQRT(disc)) / (2*a), "")

• C5: =IF(disc>0, "Root 2", "")

• B5: =IF(disc>=0, (-b + SQRT(disc)) / (2*a), "")

• A5: =IF(disc>0, "Root 1", IF(disc=0, "Double root", ""))

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 IF functions
• So now, if there is only 1 root, we display:
– “Double root” (since there is only 1 root) in A5
– The root value in B5
– Nothing in cells C5 and D5

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 IF functions
• If there are no roots, we display:
– Nothing in cells A5 and D5

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 IF functions
• If there are 2 roots, we display:
– “Root 1” in A5
– The first root value in B5
– “Root 2” in C5
– The first root value in B5

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 Exercise
• Q) In cell A6, type “Number of real roots”.
What formula should you type into cell D6
to display number of real roots?

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 Error values

Displayed
Meaning
value
#DIV/0 Division by 0
#NAME? Undefined variable / function name
#N/A No value available
#NULL! A result has no value
#NUM! Numerical error (e.g. SQRT(-1))
#REF! Invalid cell reference
#VALUE! Invalid input type (e.g. SQRT("abc"))

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 Error values
• A circular reference occurs when a
formula refers to itself
(directly or indirectly), e.g.
– Direct example:
• A1: = A1+6
– Indirect example:
• A2: = A3+7
• A3: = A2*2

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 To Know
• How to use formulas
• Difference between relative and absolute
referencing, and when to use which one
• Why you should use cell references and
not raw values in formulas
• Variables, and why we use them
• Functions
– Especially the IF function
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 To Do
• If you have not yet done so, read through
yesterday’s lecture (Lecture 1-1)
• See course website:
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/courses/engg1801
• Install Matlab on your computer
– Lecture 1-1, slides 64 – 65
• Attend lab on time; do not wait outside
room, just log in using unikey and
password, then open course website
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