All articles with 'trend lines' Tag

Recently we asked you, what do you struggle doing in Excel? 170 people responded to this survey and shared their struggles. In this post, lets examine the top 10 struggles according to you and awesome remedies for them.

One of the most dreaded courses during my under-graduation is Probability, Statistics & Queuing Theory. We called it PSQT. I struggled to understand the significance and concept of this course as I could barely concentrate in the class. We had a professor, who is probably a genius, but the moment he started the class, I would magically fall in to one of my after-noon naps. When I woke up, we are either in the middle of an elaborate t-test or going thru intricacies of a Markovian queue.

This was all 11 years ago. Later in life, I have embraced the world of probability & statistics. I still fear queues. May be I will get there one day. 😉

A good understanding of statistics & probability theory is necessary if you want to model complex real-life problems using Excel or similar tools. Naturally, Excel has several functions, features & supported add-ins to help you in this area.

Today, I want to share some of this with you. This article is broken down in to 3 parts.

1. Learning Statistics & Probability using Excel
2. Downloadable Excel Workbooks to understand
3. Full blown models & simulations in Excel

In the final post of the Are You Trendy? series we will look at the use of Excel Charts and associated Trendlines for trend analysis and I will give you a free tool (Normally valued at $200, I wish) which will allow interactive assessment of a Charts Trendline Y value for any X value.

A good chart tells a story. Here is a fantastic example of what a good chart is. The chart itself is very simple and easy. But it brilliantly juxtaposes two interesting pieces of data : Obesity rates in countries and Time spent eating per day, to tell a story.