Biorhythms - a calculator and chart

Written by Janet Swift

Friday, 20 November 2009
Article Index
Biorhythms - a calculator and chart
forecast chart
!a"e # of 2
S$readsheet charts are usually thou"ht of as bein" em$loyed in a business conte%t or else in
science and en"ineerin"& 'his e%am$le is $ersonal ( we are "oin" to chart biorhythms&
)d* Banner+
Biorhythms
,f you have never come across the biorhythms hy$othesis before it is an ele"antly sim$le
one& ll human bein"s are sub-ect to three re"ular and constantly re$eated cycles - a
$hysical cycle that is 2. days lon", an emotional cycle of 2/ days and an intellectual one of
.. days&
'he idea that cyclical $atterns affect our $hysical and emotional states ori"inated around
#//0 when a 0erman $hysician, 1r Wilhelm Fleiss and a 2iennese $sycholo"ist, 1r
3ermann Swoboda, each wor4in" inde$endently in se$arate locations, re$orted their
observations of "rou$s of human sub-ects they were studyin"& 'he third cycle, relatin" to
intellectual $erformance was $ro$osed some 50 years later by 1r lfred 'eltscher who was
studyin" the e%amination $erformance of about 5,000 students&
lthou"h the theory has never been accorded com$lete academic res$ectability is has
"ained acce$tance in many countries and in many industries& 6ven so its fun and $rovides
an e%cellent e%am$le of s$readsheet charts and "ra$hs&
,ntuitively this idea a$$ears to have a lot "oin" for it& !eo$le often e%$ress the idea that life
is li4e an ever-turnin" wheel and sayin"s li4e 7on the crest of a wave7 or 7in a rut7 are
universal ways of indicatin" our state of wellbein"& ,t e%$lains the seemin"ly irrational u$s
and downs that we all e%$erience - why sometimes we seem to be more clumsy, more
easily u$set or more stu$id than at other times and at others we are sur$risin"ly stron" and
a"ile, feelin" 7on to$ of the world7 or have flashes of brilliance&
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Biorhythms are entirely time-related& 'he hy$othesis assumes that at the $oint in time a
$erson is born all three cycles start out at 0 and they then follow their three set curves "oin"
to hi"h then bac4 throu"h 0 to low for ever more& So the only two $ieces of information
you need to wor4 out where a $erson is in his or her biorhythm cycles is their date 8or to be
$recise, time9 of birth and the date 8or time9 they want to 4now about - and in most cases
that will be the current $oint in time&
A Biorhythms Spreadsheet
rmed with this theory we are ready to create a s$readsheet that will calculate, and chart,
an individual:s biorhythms& 'he first ste$ is to ty$e in the titles, labels and numbers as
shown below*

Ne%t we need to consider the two items of data needed to fill in cell B5 76la$sed time since
birth7&
,f , as4ed you how lon" or how many days and hours have ela$sed since you were born
without recourse to a s$readsheet you would find it a difficult ;uestion to answer& 'his is
because date and time arithmetic is inherently difficult for us humans - but not for a
com$uter& s$readsheet coverts whatever dates you ty$e in to date serial numbers and
stores them as any other number and this sim$lifies calculations involvin" dates&
So rather than enter a value in B5 we need to enter the individual:s date of birth in B.& 1ate
entry is somethin" that has become a lot sim$ler as s$readsheets have evolved& <ri"inally
you would have needed to use a date function to convert a date into its underlyin" date
serial number $lus date formattin" to ma4e it dis$lay as a date& 'hese days s$readsheets
reco"ni=e dates in many formats so all you have to do is ty$e somethin" li4e ##>20>09 or
20-Nov-09 in B.&
1o chec4 to ma4e sure the s$readsheet you are usin" follows the conventions you e%$ect&
For e%am$le 0.>0?>#0 is ?th @arch to a s$readsheet wor4in" with AS settin"s and .rd
$ril to one with AB settin"s& ,f you use a format with the abbreviations Jan, Feb etc you
can avoid this confusion&
s already mentioned if you want $in$oint $recision you can use the time of birth&
Fortunately this is also an easy thin" to do with a s$readsheet usin" 2?-hour time notation&
For e%am$le for a birth at #0 o:cloc4 in the mornin" on .rd @arch #9/?
enter*
2
3-Mar-84 10:00
in B. or for one at a ;uarter $ast seven in the evenin" of #5th u"ust #9CD*
15-Aug-67 19:15
6ven thou"h we have ty$ed in the time information what is dis$layed is -ust the date& 'his
is due to our use of month abbreviations and could be remedied by choosin" an alternative
date and time format - but if you loo4 at the in$ut line you will see that 6%cel has ta4en
notice of the time entered&
,f you want to enter the current time and have it u$dated every time you o$en the
s$readsheet you have a choice of two functions, '<1E which will calculate the values
for midni"ht at the start of the current day or N<W which is accurate to the nearest second&
For this e%am$le let:s use the current time - and every time you o$en or recalculate the
s$readsheet it will u$date usin" the com$uter:s internal cloc4&
So ty$e*
=NOW()
into B?
s lon" as you have already entered the date of birth in your $referred format it should
dis$lay usin" the same convention&

'he ela$sed time since birth is, of course, the difference in days 8and fractions of days as
we are usin" time of day to achieve more $recision9 between the date and time of birth and
the current time& While this would be an im$ossibly difficult calculation to do by hand all
we need to is a sim$le subtraction in B5*
=B4-B3
'he result initially loo4s sur$risin" as it will be dis$layed not as a number but as a date and
time&
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'o remedy this re;uires cell B5 to be set to show a number& 'o do this ri"ht-clic4 on the
cell, select Format Fells from the $o$-u$ menu and in the Number tab choose Number from
the Fate"ory list with 2 decimal $laces if you are interested in the 4nowin" the fractional
$art of the time difference& 8s this is a decimal fraction 0&5 corres$onds to #2 hours and
0&# to 2 hours 2? minutes9&
s well as the result in B5, the biorhythms calculations use two mathematical functions -
the GS,N function to calculate sine values corres$ondin" to the time ela$sed since the date
of birth and the G!, function to convert this to an an"ular fre;uency by multi$lyin" by 2!,&
'he formula for each of the biorhythms cycles divides B5 by the number of days in the
cycle, which we have entered in column 1& 'he first of them can be entered in 6. as*
=SIN($B$5/D3**!I())
Notice the use of an absolute reference in this formula& ,nstead of B5 it a$$ears with two
dollar si"ns& Eou can ty$e these in but if you enter the cell reference by selectin" the cell it
is easier to clic4 once on the F? function 4ey which converts a normal 8relative9 cell
reference into an absolute 8i&e& fi%ed9 one&
'he advanta"e of "oin" to the trouble of s$ecifyin" the reference as absolute is that you
co$y this formula into 6? and 65&
'he values you obtain for !hysical, 6motional and ,ntellectual are numbers in the ran"e (#
to H# ( and are not very informative& Eou can ma4e the s$readsheet easier to inter$ret by
addin" comments that ta4e advanta"e of the G,F function, one of the most useful of all
s$readsheet functions&
,n "eneral terms, an G,F lets you s$ecify different outcomes for different conditions&
sim$le ,F handles two outcomes ( what ha$$ens if somethin" is true and an alternative that
holds otherwise& By nestin" one ,F within another you can of course handle more
$ossibilities& 'he followin" formula, to be entered into F., s$lits the ran"e into I<W 8a
value below -0&59, 3,03 8a value above 0&59, and @61,A@ 80&5 to -0&5 inclusive9&
=I"(#3$0%5&'(I)('&
I"(#3*-0%5&'+OW'&'M#DI,M'))
Notice the need to enclose the te%t messa"es in double ;uotes& Eou can co$y this formula
to F? and F5& Eou mi"ht li4e to divide the ran"e into five or even seven cate"ories instead
of -ust three with comments such as '6JJ,F,F, J6IIE 0<<1, !J6''E 0<<1,
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@61,A@, !J6''E B1, J6IIE 1J61FAI and BES@I ( but be warned
s$littin" an ,F statement li4e this is hard wor4&
!rev - Ne%t KK
!a"e 2 of 2
A biorhythms forecast
ccordin" to the biorhythms theory, it is the transition days when a cycle is $assin" from
hi"h to low, rather than the hi"h or low days themselves, that $resent us with crises&
'his is $articularly the case when two cycles, or even worse all three cycles cross
simultaneously& 'hese are the days to loo4 out for and the best way to do this is with a chart
to show the biorhythm curves for a $eriod you are interested in&
Set u$ a new wor4sheet with the name and date of birth of the $erson we want to create a
biorhythms chart for and a"ain ty$e in the number of days for each of the three cycles, as
shown&

6nter the name of the $erson whose biorythm:s you are "oin" to chart in B2 and their date
of birth in B.&
Eou may thin4 it odd that these are in the row above the cycle names - but this sim$ly
ma4es it easier for chartin"&
Asin" the s$readsheet:s Lfill handleM ma4es it easy to create a list of dates to be included in
the chart& ll you need to do is to enter the first date in D& 'hen you select the cell and
hover the cursor at its bottom ri"ht corner where there:s a solid s;uare& cross a$$ears and
you can dra" this down the column& When you release it the date se;uence a$$ears&
,n the $revious wor4sheet we calculated the ela$sed difference since birth before $uttin"
to"ether the formula to wor4 out the corres$ondin" biorhythm state& ,n this s$readsheet we
will do this subtraction within the main biorhythm formula but a"ain we s$ecify the cell
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references so as to be able to enter -ust one version of one formula and co$y it to the
remainder of the table&
We need to ma4e the reference to the date of birth in B. an absolute reference, i&e& NBN.,
so that it remains the same in every co$y
We need to ma4e the reference to the date it is bein" subtracted from in D column
absolute, row relative, i&e& ND, so that it always refers to the date column but chan"es to
corres$ond to the row number&
We need to ma4e the reference to the days in cycle in B5 column relative, row absolute,
i&e& BN5, so that it always refers row 5 but chan"es to corres$ond to the column when
co$ied&
'he formula to enter in BD is*
=SIN(($A7-$B$3)/B$5**!I())
and this is easiest to do by first ty$in" GS,N88 then clic4in" on cell D and $ressin" the F?
4ey three times& Ne%t ty$e - then clic4 on B. and $ress the F? 4ey once& 'y$e 9> then clic4
on B5 and $ress the F? 4ey twice& Finally ty$e in the remainder of the formula O2O!,899 and
$ress 6nter&
3avin" entered the initial formulae to calculate the values !hysical in BD clic4 on it and use
fill handle to co$y it to the ad-acent two cells for 6motional and ,ntellectual in FD*1D& 'hen
select the three cells BD*D& Eou:ll see the familiar fill handle at the very bottom left and
you can fill down to com$lete the table in a sin"le o$eration&
The chart
Freatin" the chart is very easy& Select the bloc4 of cells containin" the labels, the dates and
values 8i&e& C&&1.C9 and clic4 on the chart icon in the toolbar& ,n the Fhart Wi=ard select
Iine in the left hand column of Fhart 'y$es and then select the first Fhart sub-ty$e - a line
without mar4ers& 'hen clic4 Ne%t&
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Just clic4 Ne%t at Ste$ 2 of the Fhart Wi=ard&
t Ste$ . we can ma4e the chart more informative by ty$in" te%t into the bo%es for Fhart
title - 7Biorhythm Forecast7, and the time $eriod into Fate"ory 8P9 a%is in the 'itles section
of the tabbed dialo" bo% leavin" the 2alue 8E9 a%is bo% blan4&
'hen clic4 on the %es tab& 3ere $lace the radio button for the Fate"ory 8P9 a%is besides
'ime-Scale and untic4 the 2alue 8E9 a%is bo%&
Flic4 on the 0ridlines tab and $ut a tic4 a"ainst @inor 0ridlines for the 8P9 a%is but
remove the tic4s for the 8E9 a%is&
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Flic4 on the Ie"end tab and select Bottom by clic4in" on its radio button&

We can i"nore the remainin" tabs so clic4 on Ne%t&
'he final choice in the Fhart Wi=ard is whether to include the chart on the wor4sheet or as
a se$arate sheet& 'y$in" the title of the Fhart into the bo% "ives it a more informative name
than Fhart #&

<ur Biorhythm chart is com$lete&
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,f you want to use the chart with your own data but without havin" to create it from scratch
you can download Biorhythms&%ls
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