Excel for Marketing Managers

Probability with Coins or Dice

Probability
w/ Coins
or Dice

Creating the Solution – Tossing a Coin................................................................................

1. Enable manual calculation and single iteration.
   Open a new workbook. From the Tools menu at the top of the page, select
   Options and click on the Calculation tab. Click on the radio button next to
   Manual, and click the box to remove the check mark from “Recalculate be-
   fore save”. Next, click on the box next to “Iteration”, and change the num-
   ber of Maximum iterations in the box to 1 (one). Click OK to exit.


2. Type the following words in the indicated cells.
   Cell E3: Heads
   Cell F3: Tails
   Cell G3: Total


3. Enter a temporary number.
   In order to keep the individual counts at zero until you finish, you will need
   to type a temporary number into the cell that these formulas reference.
   Go to cell E1 and enter a 2.


4. Type in the formulas with circular references.
   In cell E4, enter this formula: =IF(E1=0,E4+1,E4)
   This formula looks at the cell where Excel will generate either a 0 or 1. If
   there is a 0, Excel will add 1 to whatever number is currently in cell E4. If
   it is a 1, Excel will keep the count the same.

Figure 206

Setting Manual

Calculation and

Iteration options