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phy 201
Your 'question form' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
** Question Form_labelMessages **
Error Analysis Data Program
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In the Error Analysis I experiment you were to have observed 30 swings of a certain pendulum.
In the first error analysis lab (entitled Error Analysis Part I; if you don't clearly remember this activity you should review your results as posted at your access site) you compared the mean and standard deviation of a (not-quite-random) sample of five of these intervals with the mean interval for the entire sequence of observations.
In this exercise you will perform additional analysis of your data. This analysis can be done easily enough using a spreadsheet, but one of the purposes of this lab is to introduce you to a rudimentary analysis program designed to perform certain very common operations on certain common types of data.
In this exercise you will also learn more about the normal distribution and its application to experimental data.
The average time reported to complete this experiment is about 2 hours, with times pretty evenly distributed between 1 and 3 hours. A few students report under 1 hour, and a few report over 3 hours.
The data program should save you several hours in analyzing some of the subsequent labs.
The program can be obtained by clicking on the link data program. In case this link doesn't work the program is located at
http://www.vhcc.edu/dsmith/genInfo/labrynth_created_fall_05/levl1_15\levl2_51/dataProgram.exe
or can be access by going to the Access Site using a path similar to the one used to access your site:
http://www.vhcc.edu/dsmith > General Information > (scroll to bottom of page and click on Access Your Information) then when the first menu comes up clicking on 15, then when the new menu appears on 51, then when the third menu appears on Data Program, which will be near the top of the page.
I am clicking all the links to the data program and pasting them into my url.
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I don't know how to load the data program. It's showing up as a bunch of random script and characters.
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Is there another way to load the program?
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Can you tell me exactly what you are doing when you copy
http://www.vhcc.edu/dsmith/genInfo/labrynth_created_fall_05/levl1_15\levl2_51/dataProgram.exe
into the Address box of your browser?
Note that this program does need to be run in a Windows-compatible environment.
If you don't have access to a Windows computer you can use other utilities, e.g., spreadsheets, to analyze the data. The data analysis program is more convenient, but spreadsheets do the job nearly as easily. If this is your situation let me know and I can send you some guidelines.
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#$&*
phy 201
Your 'question form' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
** Question Form_labelMessages **
TIMER Problems
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To use the Java version:
Windows users:
The Java applet does require that the Java Runtime Environment be installed. Almost every Apple computer, and most Windows computers, will have this environment installed. If your computer will not run the Java applet, the installation is simple and quick. If you search under 'Java Runtime Environment', using any search engine, you will find information on the Java Runtime Environment and on the installation. You should satisfy yourself that you are downloading from a verifiable, trusted source.
Mac users:
Apple supplies their own version of Java. Use the Software Update feature (available on the Apple menu) to check that you have the most up-to-date version of Java for your Mac.
should check the Apple site for the Software Update feature (available on the Apple menu) to check that you have the most up-to-date version of Java for your Mac.
The Java Applet at the link Timer-Java will work fine for the current experiment, and will do just about everything the timer.exe program will do. The Java applet has a few more or less minor inconveniences and one that's not quite as minor:
You can't put the Java applet on your hard drive or flash drive, so you have to pull it off the Web every time you want to use it.
The applet won't file your data. However it will let you copy and paste your data into a text editor.
If your machine doesn't run Java applets, you would have to set it up to do so (just search the web under 'Java Runtime Environment', which is free and installs easily). This software is pretty standard, and is already installed on most machines.
I have a mac and have made sure I updated my java software. The Java Applet at the link Timer-Java does not load anything on my page- it says insert instructions here. Whenever i click the timer.exe link a bunch of characters and jibberish are loaded.
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I have tried to load the TIMER program according to every step, so I don't understand what else I can do.
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Will I be penalized for TIMER not loading? I have had issues with this program since the beginning of the course, but have been able to use a friend's computer (windows) or stopwatch up until this point.
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The TIMER.EXE program is not the Java version. You need to click on the link to the Java version. I know of no problems associated with running that version, but if you do encounter any let me know.
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