+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 8 of 8

Curve of best fit

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    02-17-2007
    Posts
    4

    Curve of best fit

    Is there a way of creating a curve of best fit using excel 2003 or excel 2007 using the values:

    D I
    0 132
    10 93
    20 85
    30 51
    40 42
    50 38
    70 27
    100 20
    150 9
    200 9

    I have tried creating a scatter graph and then adding a trendline but it did not end up as the result as I had wanted.

    Thank you in advance for your help

  2. #2
    Forum Expert oldchippy's Avatar
    Join Date
    02-14-2005
    Location
    Worcester, UK
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2007 (Home)
    Posts
    7,097
    Does this link help?

    http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/Y_CategoryAxis.html
    oldchippy
    -------------


    Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting

    If you are happy with the help you have received, please click the <--- STAR icon on the left - Thanks.

    Click here >>> Top Excel links for beginners to Experts

    Forum Rules >>>Please don't forget to read these

  3. #3
    Forum Contributor
    Join Date
    03-13-2005
    Posts
    6,195
    Hi,

    if oldchippy's reference doesn't work for you, then http://www.ecr.unimelb.edu.au/~xlr8t...ngmodels.shtml is an alternative.

    hth
    ---
    Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    02-17-2007
    Posts
    4
    Yes thank you for your help, i am trying it at the moment.

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    02-17-2007
    Posts
    4
    Sorry, I am finding it too complicated to apply to the set of values I have used. Is there a macro that is able to create a "curve of best fit" for the values that have been supplied?

    Thank you again for you help.

  6. #6
    Forum Guru
    Join Date
    04-13-2005
    Location
    North America
    MS-Off Ver
    2002/XP and 2007
    Posts
    15,829
    Performing curve fitting in Excel is usually pretty easy. The LINEST (and LOGEST function if your not good at the transformation needed to get an exponential curve) function is provided for this purpose.

    If the correct equation form is available, you can use the chart trendline utility. With the data series plotted in an XY scatter plot, right click on the data series and select add trendline, select the desired equation type and. If you need to use the coefficients in other caclulations, though, you have to find a way (manually might be easiest) to get them into a spreadsheet. This is why I prefer using the LINEST worksheet function.

    Probably the hardest part of doing curve fitting isn't specific to Excel. That's deciding what kind of equation best represents your data. I haven't looked at your data in great detail, but my first impression was an exponential decay model (y=ax^-b) which should be easily obtained using the LOGEST function (see Excel Help for the LINEST and LOGEST functions). If something else is better suited (polynomial or inverse function y=ax^-b), there are ways to get these, too.

  7. #7
    Registered User
    Join Date
    02-17-2007
    Posts
    4
    I have tried using the LOGEST function. But for some reason, when I try to get "b" I cannot obtain a value. I used the formula "LOGEST(B2:B11,A2:A11,TRUE,FALSE)" and using the F2, crtl, enter ,shift combination. Also I obtained a value of 0.986433385 for "m", but doesn't this mean that the gradient of the curve is increasing?

    Also, I tried to obtain a series "line of best fit" values using the formula: "=b*m^x" but i also cannot get any values. I referred to the link http://www.ecr.unimelb.edu.au/~xlr8tr/techs/logest.xls to work out my "line of best fit values".

    Thanks everyone for their help so far and any further assistance is very much appreciated.

  8. #8
    Forum Guru
    Join Date
    04-13-2005
    Location
    North America
    MS-Off Ver
    2002/XP and 2007
    Posts
    15,829
    I was in error in my description of the LOGEST function. It fits to the curve y=bm^x.

    Can you be more specific as to the problem you are having? What do you mean you can't get b? I used LOGEST and got an m and a b. It doesn't generate a real good fit of the data, but it does have approximately the correct shape and such. "Goodness of fit" depends on how accurate the data are. I could accept the fit I got if the raw data aren't very accurate.

    What do D and I represent? What sort of relationship do you expect between D and I?

+ Reply to Thread

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts

Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0 RC 1