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Getting Started
1. Opening the program Go to the Start button on your computer, then the Programs file, then the Vernier Software file, then click the filename LoggerPro 3.x.x (where the xs are numbers). You should have version 3.6.0. If not, then download the new version. 2. Updating LoggerPro version Open a web browser and go to www.vernier.com. Click on the Downloads tab at the top of the page, then click the Complete Updater link for Windows/Vista (or for Mac OS X if you have an Apple computer). Follow the directions to download and install.
The Basics
1. Plotting data One of the most basic functions of LoggerPro is to plot data onto a graph. Try plotting four data points: (0,1); (1,3); (2,5); (3,7). You will enter the x coordinate in the x data set column and the y coordinate in the y data set column. You should see a red line pop into the graph screen at the bottom left. 2. Autoscaling your graph The red line is probably kind of small compared to the size of the graph screen. Luckily, there is a way to fix this! Find a button in the toolbar with a capital letter A and axes. This is the Autoscale button. Click it and watch your plotted data resize by changing the axis scales. 3. Disconnecting the data points It makes no sense to connect the dots when you are plotting data. Connecting data points doesnt give us any useful information, and generally scientists dont do it. So, it is generally a good idea to disconnect your data points by double-clicking anywhere in the graph area and unchecking Connect Points. 4. Point protectors In order to better see your data points on the graph, double-click anywhere in the graph area and check Point Protectors.
2. Naming data You should always change your data column names to something other than x and y. Presumably, you should name them something that relates to your data. To change the data column name, click on the top of the column where either x or y is written, then fill in the information in the Column Definition tab. Dont forget to type in units! 3. Graph options As you saw before when you double-clicked in the graph area to disconnect points and add point protectors, there are many graph options available. Here is where you can give your graph a nifty title. Most of the options we wont use, but you should be aware that this menu exists. 4. Changing variables on axes Sometimes we will have several columns of data to work with and we might need to switch around what we are plotting on our axes. To do this, you would single-click on your vertical or horizontal axis title on the graph. This gives you all the available options of what to plot on each axis.
1. Why do this? For nearly every experiment that we do in physics, we will either enter data into LoggerPro or download real-time data from a LabPro. The purpose of using LoggerPro is to better understand our data from a mathematical perspective. In order to do that, we must try to fit mathematical functions in the form of straight lines or curvy lines (usually just called curves) to our data to see how well the functions model the pattern of the real data. We can then use our function model to make predictions or draw important conclusions about the nature of physics. 2. Function fitting Here is some new data that you can transfer into LoggerPro to play with. Distance (m) Time (s) 0.0 0.0 5.0 1.0 10.0 2.0 15.0 3.0 20.0 4.0 25.0 5.0 You can simply copy/paste the data into LoggerPro! Be sure to name your columns appropriately, autoscale, disconnect points, and add point protectors. Plot your time data on the horizontal axis and your distance data on the vertical axis. Find the button at the top that has f(x) on it and some curvy lines. Click on it it should say Curve Fit at the top of the window. Use the scroll bar to take a look at all of the function options you have. Because our data looks like points that might fall on a straight line, it might be a good idea to try the Proportional or Linear fit this time. The only difference between the two is that the Proportional fit only allows the y-intercept of the line model to be zero, while the Linear fit would let the y-intercept be non-zero. Click Try Fit, and LoggerPro will automatically draw the line on your graph! Click OK to go back to the full graph. Now a little informative box should appear on your graph which tells you the value of slope of your linear graph and the equation of your linear model. 3. Advanced function fitting At some times throughout the year we will explore some of the other function fitting options including the Manual Fit option as well as many of the other functions. Feel free to explore on your own!