Excel will be used throughout the course as an aid for solving equations, plotting trends, etc. Students should become familiar with either Excel or some similar spreadsheet program.

Excel can be accessed at most of the university's computer labs.

Here are some Excel example files that you may download. To download and use:

1. Click on the desired file.
2. Depending on your browser, whether from a PC or a Unix machine, and how it is configured, it will either launch Excel or prompt you as to whether you wish to open the file or save it onto disk.
3. If Excel is loaded on your machine, choose the option to open the file. (You may have to browse to find the correct application.)
4. If Excel is not loaded on your machine, choose the option to save the file to disk. You can then FTP it somewhere else to run the file.
5. Right-clicking on the file name works best on some browsers.
6. Note that once the file is open in Excel, you may need to click on Enable Editing; otherwise you will not be able to change anything.

• Moody_chart_solver_Colebrook_equation.xls - A simple application of Newton's iteration to solve the Colebrook equation for friction factor f as a function of Reynolds number and nondimensional roughness coefficient.
• Sample_simultaneous_equation_solver.xls - A sample showing how to use Excel's "Solver" feature to solve a set of simultaneous equations.
• Simple_runge_kutta_example.xls - A sample showing how to use the Runge-Kutta technique to solve a simple ODE in standard form.
• Example_plotting_streamlines.xlsx - A sample showing how to plot streamlines for a given stream function.