Using the excel spreadsheet to explore simple heat conduction.

I have started working on creating my own simulation of heat conduction. I hope to create an interactive flash program which the user can play with to visually and numerically see how conduction occurs in a 3 dimensional object, initially a cube. To get to grips with the basic physics of it I setup an excel spreadsheet and took advantage of the little used but powerful feature of excel which enables automatic and repetitive calculations or iteration. Iteration is repeating or looping a function over and over again, feeding the output of one calculation back into itself. This allows one to see how things change over time, each loop of iteration is a step in time.

The spreadsheet takes an array of cells whose initial temperatures are defined. Each cell looks at the temperature of its neighbours and if they are lower, leaks away some heat to them according to the heat conduction equation. This then decreases the temperature of the cell by an amount that is determined by the specific heat capacity of the substance. Each cell has a formula that references itself, which excel generally avoids, as it is often a mistake in a normal spreadsheet giving you a ‘circular reference’ error. This is avoided by allowing iteration. To access the iteration feature, select Tools>Options>Calculation: Tick the iteration box and set the number of iterations. Press F9 to execute the iteration.