Free Software

All of the software described on this page is for Windows PCs only.  It was developed by faculty in the Department of Physics at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL and is completely free to download and use.

Histogram

Histogram is a simple histogram creation tool.

Download Histogram

JagFIT

This is the newest version of JagFIT as of July 2024. This version can be used by students taking PH 114, PH 115, PH 201 and PH 202 as well as physics majors taking PH 303 or PH 385; the legacy version of JagFIT has been deprecated.

JagFIT is a free plotting/fitting program that was designed for our teaching laboratories.

Features

• Linear fits (y=mx+b and y=mx)
• Exponential fits
• Power law fits
• Polynomial fits up to 5^th order
• Inverse Fits (y = a/x and y=a/x + b)
• Plots include error bars. (User input or estimated)
• Fit parameters given with uncertainties. Reduced χ² also returned.
• Enter up to 1,000 Data Points
• Semi-Log and Log-Log plots
• Formula Bar
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  JagFIT's Formula Bar

  JagFIT has a formula bar on the toolbar at the top of the application. To use it, first select any cell in the column of the data table to which you want the formula applied. Then type in an equation beginning with an equal sign and using the notation c1, c2 etc. to refer to the data in column 1, column 2, etc. For example, to have column 2 contain the square root of the data in column 1, first select any cell in column 2, then click the formula bar and type '=sqrt(c1)' (without the quotes) and press Enter.

  The following functions are supported: Abs, Acos, Asin, Atan, Ceiling, Cos, Cosh, Exp, Floor, Ln, Log, Lower, Pow, Round, Sign, Sin, Sinh, Sqr, Sqrt, Tan, Trunc, and Upper.

   

  Close
• Fit only a selection of rows in your data table. Useful for excluding a 'bad data point' from your fit.
• Export graph as an image.
• Show the error matrix for some fit types.

Download JagFIT

Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (MEH)

MEH is a tool for calculating the temperature of a thermistor based on resistance using the Steinhart-Hart equation.

Features

• Uses the temperature vs. resistance data furnished by PASCO scientific for use with the thermistor embedded in the aluminum cylinder of PASCO’s “Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” apparatus.
• MEH was developed for use with PASCO Scientific’s “Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” apparatus, but it can be used with any thermistor provided the user supplies a temperature vs. resistance input data file.

Download MEH

Plot Digitizer

Plot Digitizer is a useful program for extracting data from a linear, log X, log Y, or log-log plot. 

Features

• A zoom window aides you in clicking on precisely the point you are interested in.
• Automatically corrects for the rotation of the image you're analyzing as well as the non-orthogonality of the axes.
• Any 3 non-collinear points can be used for calibration. (Calibration points do not need to be on the axes.)
• Save your progress at any time in a "project" file.
• Label the calibration points you have selected. (Labels can be toggled on and off.)
• Label the points you're digitizing on the calibrated image. (Labels can be toggled on and off.)
• Export the calibrated image (showing the point labels) to a .bmp, .png, .jpg or .gif file.
• Export data to an ASCII file

Download Plot Digitizer