Hi All,
I am just starting to learn how to chart surfaces using Excel 2007, and I need some guidance generating the data table. So here's a challenge for you.
I've got a vector of x in a row and vector of y in a column. The vertical y vector starts one cell left and one cell down from the first x in the horizontal x vector. y goes from 0 to 100 and x goes from 0 to 100, all integers (but whatever, right). Then I place the corresponding z values in the table in the space under the x row and to the right of the y column. This is the basis for a 3D-surface diagram with z as the vertical axis. Hope it's clear so far.
Now, y is a function of x, for example assume:
y=f(x)=x^2
The function actually has an error term:
y=f(x)=x^2+epsilon
And it is the distribution of the epsilon term that I want to illustrate in the third dimension.
So far, this is just a curve in 2 dimensions, which is not really meaningful to draw in 3D. I want to make a ridge along this curve, representing the distribution of the curve, or of epsilon to be more accurate. For the sake of simplicity we can assume it's a normal distribution. So the highest points on the ridge and the highest value of z is where y=x^2 and the ridge slopes downwards on both sides of the curve and approaches zero.
Obviously, I'm not willing to type the value of each cell in the table manually. So how would you go about creating a table for this chart, through formulas, some special feature or add-in?
Let me know if something is not clear and if I need to add any info.
Oh, and thanks for being here! A couple of years ago I had no idea of the power of Excel and now I'm ever more enthusiastic to learn more. So it's grateful that experienced users are getting together on MrExcel.
Sincerely
(first time poster)
Aqil
I am just starting to learn how to chart surfaces using Excel 2007, and I need some guidance generating the data table. So here's a challenge for you.
I've got a vector of x in a row and vector of y in a column. The vertical y vector starts one cell left and one cell down from the first x in the horizontal x vector. y goes from 0 to 100 and x goes from 0 to 100, all integers (but whatever, right). Then I place the corresponding z values in the table in the space under the x row and to the right of the y column. This is the basis for a 3D-surface diagram with z as the vertical axis. Hope it's clear so far.
Now, y is a function of x, for example assume:
y=f(x)=x^2
The function actually has an error term:
y=f(x)=x^2+epsilon
And it is the distribution of the epsilon term that I want to illustrate in the third dimension.
So far, this is just a curve in 2 dimensions, which is not really meaningful to draw in 3D. I want to make a ridge along this curve, representing the distribution of the curve, or of epsilon to be more accurate. For the sake of simplicity we can assume it's a normal distribution. So the highest points on the ridge and the highest value of z is where y=x^2 and the ridge slopes downwards on both sides of the curve and approaches zero.
Obviously, I'm not willing to type the value of each cell in the table manually. So how would you go about creating a table for this chart, through formulas, some special feature or add-in?
Let me know if something is not clear and if I need to add any info.
Oh, and thanks for being here! A couple of years ago I had no idea of the power of Excel and now I'm ever more enthusiastic to learn more. So it's grateful that experienced users are getting together on MrExcel.
Sincerely
(first time poster)
Aqil
