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LSP 121 -- 10/14/10

Review Questions

1. What is the modern definition of the inch?

   Ans: 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters. The older definition (until 1959) was 1 meter = 39.34 inches.

2. How many micrometers in one kilometer?

   Ans: See answers-prop-units.xls

3. Convert a terasecond to centuries.

   Ans: See answers-prop-units.xls

4. How many miles are in one light year?

   Ans: See answers-prop-units.xls

5. What is the logarithm of 3.1623?

   Ans: 3.1623 is the square root of 10, so log 3.1623 = log √10 = log 10^0.5 = 0.5

Introduction to Access

Reference in Course Documents:   Access Tutorial
• Databases are ubiquitous, usually behind the scenes.

• Here are some of the places they are used:
  Online purchase

  Store checkout

  Library check out and check in

  Police license check

  University course schedule display

Creating an Access Database

1. Create an Access database named Persons. Then create the following table named PersonData.

   PersonData
   Name	Gender	Age
   Judy	F	27
   Michael	M	29
   Alice	F	32

   The database that you create should be similar to the example database persons.accdb.

2. Create an Access table like the StudentData table in Section A of the Access Tutorial.

Why Databases?

• Why Databases Instead of Spreadsheets?
  Safety   Databases write data to disk often; spreadsheets do calculations in memory. Losing data due to a power failure is less likely with a database.

  Scaleability   Databases are designed to work with large amounts of data (millions of rows); spreadsheets bog down when many columns (more than 100) or rows (more than 1000) are used.

  Efficiency   Databases make it easy to create queries; spreadsheets are hard to use for complex calculations on large amounts of data.

  Concurrency   Databases allow more than one user to use the database at the same time; spreadsheets only allow one user at a time.

  Security   Databases provide better facilities to guard against unauthorized access.

  Data Validation   Databases provide better facilities for checking data to insure consistancy and correctness.

• When is a spreadsheet better than a database?
  Faster for quick and dirty one-shot analyses.

  Better for simulations.

  More efficient for copying and duplicating data with repetitive patterns.

  Very good for what-if analysis involving calculations, statistics and charts.

• Creating and Populating an Access Table   Read Sections A (Introduction) and B (Creating) in the Access Tutorial.

Filtering and Sorting

• Filtering a table means create a new table consisting of part of an existing table.

• Filtering can be accomplished By Form, By Selection, By Excluding Selection and By Advanced Filtering.

• We will use Advanced Filtering in this class.

• Sorting a table means sort the rows of the table in order according to one or more columns.

• Table rows may be sorted in ascending or descending order.

• Sorting is done in numerical order for columns of type Number or Currency; it is done in alphabetic order for columns of type Text.

• We will use Advanced Filtering in this class because it shows all possibilities in one filter table.

• See the Access Tutorial, Section E, for details on Filtering.

Activity 8

• Do Activity 8.

• Responses to Activity 8 questions require three parts:
  1. The Advanced Query/Sort that you used (enter as a Word table).

  2. The table produced by the Advanced Query/Sort (copy from Access and paste into your table).

  3. The actual answer to the question (type into your Word document).

• Remember to reset the Query/Sort in Access after each question.