QN2008ExcelPractice

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QuarkNet 2008 Excel Practice

Rather than bore most of you with yet another introduction to Excel, we decided to provide an exercise to test your skills. If you can complete all the steps, you know all you need for this workshop. If not, we can provide individual help to those who need it. Also, do not be afraid to ask someone else in the workshop how to do something. Many of us have acquired our knowledge of Excel in that way.

The exercise involves an analysis of data taken with apparatus designed to measure the charge-to-mass ratio of an electron. The apparatus consists of a set of Helmholtz coils and a cathode ray tube. The operating principles are similar to those of mass spectrometers and particle accelerators. The tube is mounted in the center of the coils, which results in a fairly uniform magnetic field in that location. The field is adjusted by varying the supplied current. The tube produces electrons by thermionic emission and accelerates them with an adjustable electric field. The resulting electron beam is redirected by the magnetic field of the coils. Proper adjustments will cause the electron beam to complete a circle. The radius of the beam circle is measured with a fluorescent ruler mounted inside the tube. From values of coil current and beam radius, the mass of an electron can be determined with less than 10% error. That is what you have to do, so you already know the final answer. The instructions take you through the calculation and graphing steps to arrive at that answer. If you can do all this stuff already, work on your wiki, talk quietly among yourselves, or play a game (that's what students would do). {OK, students would probably text message, but the cell reception in the NSL is pretty lousy, so you will probably have to go outside for that.}

The data file is here, and the exercise instructions are here. Start by copying the data file to your desktop. Have fun!