Table 7: Speed of a Rocket as a Function of Time. The acceleration is not constant.

Raw Data
Time (s)
4.0
15.0
30.0
43.0
54.0
66.0

Explanation is below of how to do this.

Speed (cm/s)
0.205
0.530
1.91
5.90
15.3
41.5

Results of LOGEST, Y = B 10x

1.08963377 0.14605942
0.00023586 0.00975412
0.9999698
0.0124163
132464.756
4
20.421368 0.00061666

=ln(D4)
0.08584165

Figure 8(b) Speed of a Rocket Accelerating Non-uniformly

100

f(x) = 0.1460594201 exp( 0.0858416453 x )

Speed, v (cm/s)

10

0.1
0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

Time, t (s)

50.0

60.0

70.0

0.1
0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

Time, t (s)

To make the graph:

1. Drag across the data, cells A4:B9 and click on the graphing icon
2. Click on XY scatter, then on Next, and Next again.
3. Enter title and axis labels. click Next
4. Click Gridlines tab, check the minor gridlines boxes for both axes.
5. Click Legends tab and uncheck the "Show Legend" box. Click Finish.
6. Click on graph to show handles and make the graph the right size (large!)
7. Double click somewhere on the x-axis. On Patterns tab check Tick Mark Labels Low, and click OK.
8. Repeat step 7 for the y-axis. Make scale Logarithmic (Scale tab).
9. Double click on the gray area of graph and check Plot Area None.
10. Double click on a minor gridline and make the Pattern color gray. Do this for x and y.
11. Single click on a data point. From Chart on menu bar, pick Add trendline. Double click Exponential.
12. Click on Options, check Display Equation, and click OK.
13. Drag the equation to a clear space and edit it to include proper symbols and units.
14. Double click on the heavy fit line. From Pattern tab, make the weight lighter.
15. From the options tab Forecast Forward 3 and backward 4 and click OK.
To do the LOGEST function
1. Drag across a region of 5 rows and 2 columns, (D4:E8 in the above example)
2. Type LOGEST(y-data, x-data,,1) in the cell F5. In our example this is
"=LOGEST(B4:B9,A4:A9,,1)". Notice the double comma!
3. Hold down the Apple/Alt key on the keyboard and hit return.
4. The array of values is returned that consists of the following.
Only the first two rows will be used. A statistics course will explain the other rows.
Slope
Error in Slope

Intercept
Error in Intercept

r2
F-statistic

Standard error for y-estimate

Degrees of freedom

Regression
Residual
sum of
sum of
squares
squares
5. Now Bill Gates is not really interested in science and engineering applications.
The equation shown for the trendline is exponential (e^x), what we want.
But the results of LOGEST gives a fit of 10^x, ideal for those stockbrokers, I guess,
who are not the transcendental types. To get the power for e^x we must
take the natural log of the LOGEST slope, as is done in cell G4.

How to make the graph.

and click OK.

lick Exponential.