Interactive Excel Spreadsheets in Materials Science

How do I interact with the spreadsheet?
The interactivity on the spreadsheets occurs as cells with a yellow background, where the number can be entered by typing in a value, or sliders, where one can drag the center bar or click on the terminal arrows, are changed. Likewise, the spinner works by clicking on the arrows. You may also see check boxes or option buttons which perform the indicated task. A response will occur on the graph and/or data by adjusting any of these items. List boxes are also used to select information. Comment cells (red triangle in upper right corner) are used to deliver information as well.

The Collection -
Here are a variety of Excelets (hold the cursor over the link for a brief description) and some pdf handouts for topics in Materials Science. Some of these are simple calculation aids, while others explore concepts by bringing the mathematics alive. (Note - In Excel, you may need to resize these spreadsheets to fit your screen by going to View on the menu bar and selecting Zoom.)

Excelets (Javaless Applets) (For best results - right click and then select Save Target As... to download, then open directly in Excel)
Materials and Measurements
Nuts and Bolts of Extrapolation (activity) (article)	Nuts and Bolts of "Let's Make an Error" (activity) (article)
Rulers and Measurement Error	Calibration of a Balance
How do you compare data from two difference sources?	Can Random Error be Controlled?
Error Bars and Data Variability	How do you determine the error in a calculated result based on experimental measurements?
Error in Experimental Data
Materials Science Concepts
Comparing Linear and Logarithmic Scales over Orders of Magnitude	Developing a Mathematical Model for a Burning Candle (activity)
Imperfections in Metallic Solids	How does the temperature change for a cooling cup of coffee? (right click and save target as...)
Comparing the Size of Atoms and Ions	Vibrations in Metallic Solids
Homogeneous Nucleation	Conductor, Semiconductor, or Insulator?
Does grain size matter when stress is applied?	Fraction Crystallized and the Avrami Equation
Bonding in Sodium Chloride Crystals	Packing of Metals
I-V Curves for Materials	Diffusion in Metals
Using Radius Ratio Rules to Predict the Crystal Structure	Exploring the Periodic Table: Metal - Nonmetal Comparison
Thermal Expansion	The Interaction of Electromagnetic Radiation and Solid Matter
Metals and Corrosion (activity)	Carbon Nanotubes (web-based activity)
X-rays and the Crystalline State of Matter	Band Gap Behavior in Carbon Nanotubes
Effective Nuclear Charge	Segre Plot (Neutron-Proton plot)
Exploring the Crystal Structure of Metals I: Cubic Structures (web-based structures)	Exploring the Crystal Structure of Metals II: Hexagonal Close Packing (web-based structures)
Brinell Hardness	Three-point Load Test for Fracturing Ceramics
Carbon Footprint Calculator	Chemical Equilibrium and Free Energy
Born-Haber Cycle for the Alkali Halides	Lattice Energy of Ionic Compounds
Mean Free Path Calculator	Examining the Crystal Structure of the Alkali Halides
Exploring the Band Gap in Semiconductors	Metallic Bonding
Behavior of Light at the Interface between Materials	The Behavior of Half-Life

For information on designing Excelets and links to mathematical modeling of data support materials, see Developer's Guide to Excelets. For more Excelets in general chemistry, see the Chemical Excelets page.

This work is supported by the Howard/Cornell/PGCC/Gallaudet Partnership for Reduced Dimensional Materials (PRDM), which is funded by NSF Grant No. DMR-1205608.