Igor Pro 6 from WaveMetrics

There are many data analysis software programs available to undergraduate physics students in this day and age, and it can be hard to find one that is user friendly but still effective. Personally, for simple graphing and regression, I often find myself returning to Microsoft Excel which can be a burden when you're trying to get everything just right.

Image from Wikimedia.org

Recently, at my graduate institution, I was introduced to Igor Pro software from WaveMetrics.com. This program is essentially a beefed-up Excel for the physics-minded researcher and it is very easy to use! You can graph simple XY relationships as well as process images & wave data, perform statistical anaysis, and even define your own fit functions for regression.

More over, I've discovered that it is used widely in graduate school research, making it an excellent tool to familiarize yourself with now. I highly recommend giving the free trial a look-see. If you like it, you may be able to request a student code and user ID to download the full program for free.

If you do choose to give Igor Pro a try, here are some useful beginner's guidelines for entering and analyzing data from the Memorial University (CA) physics department.

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