Numerical solution of ordinary differential equations using an MS Excel© spreadsheet

Summary

The facilities of Excel may be easily extended by the use of VBA functions to include the numerical solution of simultaneous first order differential equations. Using a similar approach Rosen [4] uses an MS Excel© spreadsheet to display the solution of a model of the earth’s carbon cycle.Packages such as Matlab™ offer accurate and robust numerical procedures for numerical integration and if such packages are available it is probably better to encourage students to use them. However MS Excel© is not without its advantages. Students have a great deal of familiarity with MS Excel© and generally have ready access to it. Any subsequent processing and the graphical display of the solution is aided by this familiarity.