Spreadsheet Approach to the Linear Least Squares Fit

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 1 Issue 1 (1996), S1430-4171(96)01012-6

Spreadsheet Approach to the Linear Least Squares Fit

Marie L. Carman and Thomas G. Chasteen*

Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341-2117, USA

Published online: 25 March 1996

Abstract. A method of programming two commercially available spreadsheet programs to calculate the linear-least-squares (LLS) line from a set of sample data is presented. Student data from a Quantitative Analysis chemistry course are used as examples. Files for both Excel for Macintosh and Quattro Pro for IBM compatibles are available online with this paper. These include blank spreadsheet templates, an example using seven xy pairs of student data with graphs of the data and best-fit line, and more advanced spreadsheet template files that incorporate the calculated standard deviation in the regression line's slope and y-intercept, as well as the error about the line.

Key Words: Computers in Chemistry; spreadsheet, computers; statistics; linear least squares

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: chm_tgc@shsu.edu)

Article in PDF format (139 KB)

Supporting Materials:

template.wb1 (10 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012b, octane.wb1 (21 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012c, octgraph.wb1 (21 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012d, eroctane.wb1 (Quattro Pro) (21 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012e, template.mac (8 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012f, octane.mac (14 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012g, octanegraph.mac (2 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012h, octaneerror.mac (Excel for Mac) (15 KB) 10.1007/s00897960012i

Note: The Excel files (for the Mac) should be renamed as follows: template, octane, octane graph, octane error. The files were renamed by the publisher in order to meet internal system requirements.