Experiment 1: Remarks

Some problems with Excel:

• It is not easy to change, add, or subtract data points without having to manual redo all the analysis
• It is not easy to write general functions in Excel and then use these over and over again as either more data comes in or the experiment is redesigned.

As an alternative, you might want to think about learning a different way of analyzing your data. While it might take some effort to learn this new method, it will stand you in good stead in your future work.

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Transcript

However, it isn't very easy to change, add, or subtract data points without having to redo all of the analyses.  That's a difficult thing.  So if I wanted to apply this to another data set, I would have to go through a lot of manual things, or it would have to write functions in Excel to be able to do that.  Well, as I said in another lecture module I'm very lazy, so I'd instead like to figure out: "Is there a language that I could use to be able to write procedures to apply to my data to make things simpler?" and that language today is R.