Getting to grips with Numbers, quickly! Help required.

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Level 1

0 points

Getting to grips with Numbers, quickly! Help required.

In some homework I am required to

"Synthesise and plot a triangular waveform up to and including the 7th harmonic using:- V=100sin(2πƒt) as a fundamental for a frequency of 50Hz. You are advised to use Excel for your calculations and plotting - select 'xy scatter' plot option"

having never used numbers before I have started looking at the help guides provided. Its not explaning a lot for me :-( I was thinking that if I could get to grips with Numbers quickly it would be quicker than writing, calculating and drawing it all by hand; and then more useful for the future. However I am totally miffed at where to start. Are there tutorials available to help me get started?

How do I go about creating such formula in Numbers and how do I eventually create the waveforms?

Any help appreciated.

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 19, 2013 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 19, 2013 1:02 PM in response to tea-pee

tea-pee,

If you have a question how to do some Numbers thing we can help. We won't do your homework for you. The best place to start is with what you have so far and what specific Number question you have.

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Answer 2

SGIII

Level 8

35,282 points

Nov 19, 2013 1:17 PM in response to tea-pee

A hint to get you started. Numbers (like Excel) has lots of functions that will help you do what you need to do.

SG

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Answer 3

Nov 19, 2013 1:18 PM in response to tea-pee

The Formulas and Functions Help is a good place to start.

Jerry

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Answer 4

jaxjason

Level 5

5,047 points

Nov 19, 2013 1:37 PM in response to tea-pee

Let start with the baseline question: Are you familair with writting equations in Excel or any other spreadsheet program?

Jason

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Answer 5

jaxjason

Level 5

5,047 points

Nov 19, 2013 1:59 PM in response to tea-pee

I will give a bit of advice on using the Sin function and checking your numbers using your calculator, make sure both are in the same units. (i.e. look at the Sin help to determine its units) you might need to change your equaiton slightly if your class and calculator is using one over the other.

Sounds a little cryptic but you should know what i mean if youre in that class.

Jason

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Answer 6

tea-pee Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 19, 2013 2:07 PM in response to tea-pee

If I was after the answers I would be trawling elsewhere in the net, not on here, here I come for guidance.

If I start with the equation Vi=Vmaxsin(2πƒt) Vmax is fixed at 100V, ƒ is also fixed at 50Hz, 2π well thats never changing. In the equation the only variable is time. Oh and the V instanteous. Graphs of this equation produce a sine wave. Is there a way to produced said equation above in Numbers so that at any given point in time I can see the V instantaneous? Or do I need to various calcuations changing time myself (essentially creating a table) and then plotting a graph of time (x) against V instanteous (y)?

Excel I havent used for many years. Im doing distance learning, good for being able to work around study, rubbish for when your unsure of something.

Will start having a play with some of the things youve suggested many thanks, Ive seen a few other posts mentioning sinewaves and both Numbers and Grapher, going to be flicking through and checking things to see if I it starts becoming easier.

Many thanks for the pointer so far.

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2013 2:25 PM in response to tea-pee

Tea-pee,

Numbers can do the job. You will have to make a table of each harmonic vs time, then sum columns to make the final time-varying waveform.

Here is what I cam up with. Post back if you have specific Numbers questions.

All the best.

by the way... Grapher is GREAT!!!

Wayne

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Answer 8

tea-pee Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 19, 2013 2:26 PM in response to jaxjason

Ha! Ive certainly had that issue before way the calc has been set differently. Thanks once again.

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Answer 9

Nov 19, 2013 2:34 PM in response to tea-pee

?

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Answer 10

tea-pee Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 19, 2013 2:44 PM in response to Wayne Contello

Do you recommend Grapher or Numbers?

So I need to calculate all the figures first before inputting them into a table and then creating graph?

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Answer 11

Nov 19, 2013 5:21 PM in response to tea-pee

Grapher would be my first choice.

Jerry

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Answer 12

Nov 19, 2013 5:35 PM in response to tea-pee

Grapher.

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Answer 13

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Nov 19, 2013 10:29 PM in response to tea-pee

"Do you recommend Grapher or Numbers?"

Depends what your instructor wants to see.

Using Excel (as recommended) or Numbers (or another spreadsheet) will show the formulas you used to create the results you used to plot the graph. Grapher will accept the formulas (though not in the same format as they would be written for a spreadsheet), and show you the end result, but to my understanding, it won't show the numerical results of the calculations for the base frequency and each of the seven requested harmonics.

You might need to ask about the reasons behind the Excel recommendation.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 14

tea-pee Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 20, 2013 8:44 AM in response to Barry

Hi all,

Thanks for the input. Instructor does not care what main stream software or any other software I use to draw the graph. Its just supposedly a lot quicker, easier and more accurate than any other method. I have Numbers and Grapher on the this Mac. Going to try and play with these and see what is easiest to master.

many thanks

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