Excel for Scientists and Engineers [Paperback]

William J. Orvis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995

This text contains information on using Visual Basic for Applications, Excel's new macro language.

Product Details

• Paperback: 547 pages
• Publisher: Sybex Inc; 2 Pap/Dis edition (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782117619
• ISBN-13: 978-0782117615
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A totally different order of Excel book! Still very current., January 22, 2000

By 

W. D ONEIL "Will O'Neil" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Excel for Scientists and Engineers (Paperback)

I've owned copies of both editions of William Orvis's wonderful book and if he revises it again, I'll be first in line for a copy of the third edition. He begins with a general overview of Excel as a scientific and engineering calculation and graphing tool, assuming very little knowledge of Excel and only basic undergrad math skills. It's no book for "dummies," but anyone of reasonable intelligence and clarity of mind will have no difficulty in following what he says here. There are lots of well-explained examples, and the CD which comes with the book makes it easy to reproduce them without laborious data entry. Then he gives a brief survey of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) -- VBA light, but enough to do many useful things. Next come chapters on data base functions, curve fitting, and series models. After a chapter on numerical differentiation and integration in general, the author deals with techniques for finding roots of nonlinear equations, solving sets of linear and nonlinear equations, and integrating ordinary and partial differential equations. While the book is oriented toward Excel 7 for Win 95, no one is likely to find it at all difficult to apply what it says directly in working with later versions or those running under other OSs. There are lots of topics I'd like to see added, or treated in greater depth, but the author could scarcely have covered more in a single 500-page book, and I have no quarrel with the balance he has chosen. None of the other science- or engineering-oriented Excel books even approach this one in value and coverage -- I've read them all. Excel is no substitute for Mathematica or even MathCad, but this book gave me an entirely different appreciation for the strengths it does offer for analyzing data. This is a book I recommend not only to engineers and "hard" scientists but to anyone with a need for rigorous data analysis.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unveiling the Power of EXCEL in a Easy Manner, October 28, 2000

By 

Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Excel for Scientists and Engineers (Paperback)

This book is one of a kind. Scientists, engineers and students in the field are already using Excel for data analysis yet Orvis' sourcebook provides a one-flip reference to all the implemented functions of Excel. The second edition features illustration of built-in science and engineering tools and covers Excel for Window 95, Windows 3.1, and Mac.

Reader will learn not only how to calculate and plot simple equations but how to perform curve fitting; calculate statistics, numerical derivatives, and integrals; access external databases; and solve systems of equations and one- and two-dimensional differential equations. The book also explains how to create graphics and how to use the built-in Visual Basic for Applications programming language to extend the capabilities of the Excel worksheets.

Orvis himself is a scientist. The book is based on real uses of a spreadsheet as an engineering tool. Many of the problems were actually solved by Orvis using other techniques before he realized the full potential of the Excel spreadsheets. Therefore the book itself helps solve real problems, not just a textbook problems. This proves to be very helpful for those working in the lab and work on data analysis.

The book assume basic working knowledge with Excel; such as moving around the cells and inserting data. It assumes basic undergrad math. This is highly recommended for scientists and engineers.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amaze your colleagues, December 5, 1999

By 

L. Bundy (Callahan, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Excel for Scientists and Engineers (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping to learn more about macros and visual basic. I learned more than I expected. My colleagues have been using Excel longer than I have and wonder how I know so much about Excel. I wish I had this book when I was in engineering college. Knowing the solver Add-in would have earned me a higher grade guaranteed.