Excel for Marketing Managers

Calculation Basics

Calculation
Basics

Calculating Squares, Cubes, Square Roots, Cube Roots

Excel has the tools to figure out exponents and roots. However, it might be a bit

confusing to figure out the third or fourth root of a number.

The following problem tests the student’s knowledge of the Pythagorean

Theorem. The student has to square the length of both legs of a right triangle,

sum the squares, and then take the square root.

The formula in C6 to square 122 is =B6^2. In Excel, the carat (^) is used to

raise a number to a power.

Look at Figure 24. The formula in C7 is =B7^2. The formula in C8 is =C6+C7. In

cell C9, you want to take the square root of cell C8. There are two ways to do

this.

First, Excel offers a built in function to calculate square roots.

1. Type =SQRT followed by an open parenthesis to start the function.


2. Using the mouse, touch cell C8. Type the closing parenthesis.

Figure 23

Using a carat to raise a

number to a power

Tip:

You can type a carat by

holding down the Shift key

and pressing 6.