Data Analysis with Excel®: An Introduction for Physical Scientists (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The principle of science, the definition almost, is the following: The test of all knowledge is experiment..." (more)
Key Phrases: hypothesised population mean, order measuring system, best line through the points, Chart Wizard, Add Trendline, Assuming the Poisson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kirkup provides a very readable way for readers to learn basic principles of data analysis for the physical sciences and incoporates spreadsheets as flexible and powerful utilities...This excellent resource blends the power and utility of a popular spreadsheet package with relevant data analysis techniques and successfully combines content, relevance, and access to contemporary data analysis tools." Choice

"Overall I found the book excellent..." The Physicist

'This book is extremely well structured. It both describes the main functionality of Excel with special emphasis on scientific data analysis, as well as the statistical background to the methods ... definitely one of the best on the market in this important area ... the author should be congratulated on doing a wonderful job.' Chemistry & Industry Overall, I found the book excellent.' S. Middleton, The Physicist 'Any scientist familiar with Microsoft windows who has Excel(r) installed will find in this book a simple and straightforward introduction to the use of spreadsheet calculations and data display ... The coverage of this book will be more than adequate for undergraduate courses and will be sufficient for many postgraduate and research readers ... This book gives a good introduction to Excel(r) for data analysis for the first time user and covers the data analysis methods that most physical scientists will need. The book is a useful reference for those who already use Excel(r) and for those who may want to extend the data analysis methods that they use.' Contemporary Physics --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Overall I found the book excellent..." The Physicist

"Kirkup provides a very readable way for readers to learn basic principles of data analysis for the physical sciences and incoporates spreadsheets as flexible and powerful utilities...This excellent resource blends the power and utility of a popular spreadsheet package with relevant data analysis techniques and successfully combines content, relevance, and access to contemporary data analysis tools." Choice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (March 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521793378
• ISBN-13: 978-0521793377
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,038,913 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing book, November 12, 2004

By	A second reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Data Analysis with Excel®: An Introduction for Physical Scientists (Paperback)

This is an introductory book on Excel for physical scientists. Cambridge University Press deserves a compliment for a beautifully produced volume. Unfortunately, its contents are disappointing, because the text contains serious errors and omissions. The most obvious error is the statement, on page 308, that Excel does not provide built in facilities for fitting equations to data using nonlinear least squares. Excel does provide these, in the form of Solver, but the reader will look in vain for any mention of Solver in this book. (Figure 9.1 on page 365 shows that the author indeed has not bothered to activate the Solver Add-in.) The most serious omission is that the existence of user-definable functions and macros is not mentioned either. This leaves out two of the most powerful features of Excel: nonlinear least squares, and user programmability.

Another major problem with this book is that it doesn't show the reader how to use the spreadsheet effectively, but often goes out of its way to make easy things difficult. The almost exclusive emphasis in this book is on least squares methods, yet these are handled quite clumsily. On page 244, e.g., the linear correlation coefficient is computed from its formula by calculating the necessary sums, rather than by taking advantage of the fact that Linest, Regression, and Trendline all provide this parameter or its square. On page 284 the reader is shown the matrix algebra for fitting data to a parabola, and then told that "The built in matrix functions of Excel are well suited to estimating parameters in linear least squares problems", as if Linest, Regression, and Trendline are not there to take care of such tedious data manipulations. Likewise, on page 290, the user is not informed that Linest and Regression can also do multivariate analysis, but instead is instructed to do this the hard way, again by setting up and solving matrix equations. It is as if the author hasn't quite figured out yet that the spreadsheet has several built-in facilities specifically designed to make such least squares problems user-friendly.

In comparison with other books vying for the scientific spreadsheet market it is difficult to come up with any area in which Kirkup's book has the edge over its competitors: Billo (2nd ed., Wiley, 2001), Bloch (2nd ed., Wiley, 2003), de Levie (Oxford, 2004), Gottfried (2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 2002), Liengme (3rd ed., Newnes, 2002), and Orvis (2nd ed., Sybex, 1996) all provide much more useful information, and don't make their readers jump through unnecessary hoops either.

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly about data analysis and introductory excel usage, August 27, 2008

By	Mark II (Hong Kong SAR, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Data Analysis with Excel®: An Introduction for Physical Scientists (Paperback)

It seems Kirkup's book revolves around data analysis mainly and does the spreadsheet stuff by the book (i.e. using primarily built-in tools that comes with Excel and thus the hard way) rather than using more advanced tool such as the Solver. It is rather rudimentary and is best suited for introductory laboratory courses in the physical sciences and engineering. I think the rating of 1 star as was given by one reviewer is a bit harsh; perhaps it deserves 4 stars out of 5 if viewed from the angle that the book covers mostly basic data analysis material and should be left at the purpose of introducing basic concepts only. Of course, there is always the option of approaching the same coverage of material using a book solely on data analysis such as John R. Taylor's "An Introduction to Error Analysis" or Louis Lyons's "A Practical Guide to Data Analysis for Physical Science Students" along with the Microsoft manual of the version of Excel used. Should be adequate as a supplementary for a second-year laboratory course (full-year) of a 4-year BSc Physics program based on the North American college curriculum. Not for advanced students.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for engineering statistics, October 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Data Analysis with Excel®: An Introduction for Physical Scientists (Paperback)

If you are doing an engineering statistics course this book is of a hell of a lot more value than Engineering Statistics by Hubele, Montgomery and Runger.

This book teaches you how to do statistics using excel.
Should be aplicable for most statistics but is of great
assistance if your doing Engineering statistics and get stuck without much support.