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Re: "Proper" scientific notation



At 10:52 AM 3/10/98 -0500, Donald Simanek wrote:



Is it possible to compound notation felonies? If students write 2e3
instead of 2E3 shouldn't we worry that someone will think that e (the
base of natural logarithms) is meant? Oh, I forgot, students today leave
math courses being entirely innocent of logarithms, and of the way to use
logarithmic graph paper.

The latter is a pet peeve of mine. Some say, "Who needs to know how to use
log graph paper? Data analysis software can produce such graphs
automatically." I say, "They will have to read and interpret log graphs in
textbooks and published papers. If they have never made them, will they be
able to intelligently interpret them?" And can they trust their data
analysis software (especially those intended for "business" use) to
correctly do fits of these, especially when the experimental uncertainties
of the data points are not constant in amount or percent? Most such
analysis software can't deal with this at all. Can anyone recommend a
student-affordable software program which does?


We have programmed a spreadsheet template in Quattro which does weighted
least-squares fits to data sets entered as x, y, dy - the spreadsheet
generates the graph and provides fit parameters for linear, power law, and
exponential forms, including a calculated reduced chi-squared for each fit.

For more information about what "Physics Fit" does, check out the on-line
lab manual linked from my homepage. The template is available by anonymous
FTP from the public directory of gnd0.rmc.edu - the file is fit13.wb2

George Spagna **********************************************
Department of Physics * *
Randolph-Macon College * "Quantum Mechanics: *
P.O. Box 5005 * *
Ashland, VA 23005-5505 * the dreams stuff is made of." *
* *
phone: (804) 752-7344 * - Steven Wright *
FAX: (804) 752-4724 * *
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu **********************************************
http://www.rmc.edu/~gspagna/gspagna.html