Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We are required to use Excel to create a graph. My Project is "Sliding Light: How to Make a Dimmer Switch." On the X axis is where you label the resistor length in cm. The first length is actually 0 cm. Excel can only start with 1. So I can't plot my first pair of coordinates. How should I do this? Also, should the X axis alway start with 0 as even with the the Y axis so 0,0 is the corner of the graph, or in this case could you make it the first interval on the x axis? Thank you!

To plot scientific data such as these you should use the "Scatter Plot" capabilities of Excel. When you use that, you can actually plot a "0" value.

Put all you "X" values in one column, and their corresponding "Y" values in the column to the right of that one. Select all the data and choose "Scatter" plot.

Good luck.