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Graphing software |
Graphical Analysis |
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| The new version of Vernier's software offers powerful computer graphing facilities. Even so, it is simple to use and is very reasonably priced. We recommend it, strongly. |
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Graphical Analysis is a program for MAC or Windows produced by Vernier, a US company specializing in scientific computer products. The original version first appeared in 1982. That and Version 2 have been deservedly popular in America. Version 3 has just been released and is stocked by several UK suppliers. It is extraordinarily good and ought to be a standard utility package in every science department. On starting up the program, 3 windows appear. At top left is an empty table and, below it, a text box. Occupying the right hand side of the screen, is an empty graph. There is a cursor sitting in the top cell of the table. On typing in a data pair, a corresponding point appears on the graph. If more data is entered from the keyboard, so more points appear on the graph. It is as simple and elementary as that! In all, there are several ways of entering data:
Proceeding from an initial graph, commands for editing the graph and table and analysing the data appear by positioning the mouse in the relevant part of the screen and clicking, or by clicking on a toolbar icon, or selecting from a pull-down menu. No operation is obscure or complicated. It really is all as easy as pie. Yet there is considerable depth of analysis and the display can be refined in almost any way the user wants. For the purchase price of just under £70, the school gets a site licence. This allows students to run the program on their home computers. Each window can be copied and pasted into a Word document. Thus it is very simple to copy tables and graphs out of Graphical Analysis and paste them into lab reports. It is equally simple transferring data the other way – copying data in text tables or spreadsheets and pasting into Graphical Analysis. |
