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Basic Math

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About this lesson

Utilize basic mathematics including multiplication and division in Excel.

Exercise files

Download this lesson’s related exercise files.

Basic Math.xlsx
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Basic Math - Completed.xlsx
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Quick reference

Topic

Basic Math in Excel.

When to use

Working with basic mathematics in Excel.

Instructions

Excel’s Mathematical symbols

Addition +
Subtraction: -
Multiplication:  *
Division:  /
Exponents/Powers:  ^

Formula Basics

  • To write a formula in Excel you must start with the = character
  • A basic multiplication formula might be =8*10

Using Ranges

  • Instead of using numbers in our formulas, we can link to cell addresses

Basic formula examples

Multiply A5 by B5:  =A5*B5
Add A5 and B5: =A5+B5
Divide A5 by B5: =A5/B5

AutoSum

  • A feature to write formulas using basic Excel functions for you
  • To SUM a column:
    • Select the cell immediately below the last row of data
    • Go to the Home tab --> Editing group --> AutoSum
    • The formula will automatically show up in the cell
    • Press Enter
  • To AVERAGE a column:
    • Select the cell immediately below the last row of data
    • Go to the Home tab --> Editing group --> click the down arrow just to the right of the AutoSum button
    • Choose Average
    • The formula will automatically show up in the cell
    • Press Enter
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  • 00:05 >> Now, we've seen how to enter data in Excel, but
  • 00:08 now we're gonna start looking at formulas.
  • 00:10 These are the real things really that make Excel sing for us.
  • 00:14 Some of the key things that we need to understand is that in order to make
  • 00:17 a formula, a formula must start with the equals key.
  • 00:21 If it starts with equals, it is a formula.
  • 00:23 If it does not start with equals, it is not.
  • 00:25 It's just that simple.
  • 00:27 Now, if we wanted to do some basic math,
  • 00:31 we might try something like this, where we say equals eight.
  • 00:36 And we might put in plus ten and press enter.
  • 00:39 And you'll see that it gives us the answer of 18.
  • 00:41 The basic mathematical symbols that you see in Excel
  • 00:46 are plus, minus, of course, to subtract.
  • 00:51 We could go with the asterisk, which is shift eight, that is multiply.
  • 00:57 Divide is the forward slash down by your shift key.
  • 01:01 And if you wanted to set something to the power of, you use the little hat symbol
  • 01:06 that is on shift six, and that will give you the eight to the power of.
  • 01:09 So we'll get a pretty big number by doing that.
  • 01:12 But those are the basic mathematical symbols that you end up dealing with.
  • 01:16 So plus, minus, the asterisk for multiply, the slash for divide, and
  • 01:20 the little hat symbol for powers.
  • 01:22 Now, it's neat to see that we can write formulas like this and then calculate.
  • 01:27 But where Excel really starts to sing is where we actually start,
  • 01:31 instead of using hard coded numbers in our formulas,
  • 01:34 we actually start writing formulas that refer to cells.
  • 01:37 So if we wanted to get the product of let's say B5 times C5,
  • 01:43 what we would do is we would type in equals, and
  • 01:45 we could use our mouse if we want to click on a cell, type in multiply.
  • 01:51 And we can click on the cell with 899, or we could use our arrow keys as well.
  • 01:55 Watch, I'll arrow to the left right now.
  • 01:58 You can see that it changes and
  • 01:59 moves it around, but its updating the formula as it goes.
  • 02:02 So put it back to C5, and I'm gonna press Enter.
  • 02:05 Now, the reason why I do this is because these formulas are now dynamic.
  • 02:11 If I type in 57 over here, you'll watch,
  • 02:14 when I hit Enter it's gonna update the formula.
  • 02:16 And that's one of the great things about Excel, is that it recalculates.
  • 02:20 Now, how would I go about actually expanding this to multiple cells?
  • 02:25 Well, there's a way that we do this.
  • 02:27 We can just grab, down on the bottom left here, you see, or
  • 02:30 bottom right rather, when I mouse over this it turns into a black crosshairs.
  • 02:34 I can left click and drag this down and
  • 02:36 it'll put the same formula in different cells.
  • 02:38 So that's fantastic.
  • 02:40 And we'll talk more about why this works in future modules.
  • 02:44 But basically, at this point in time, you can see now if I click in here,
  • 02:47 it's multiplying B6 times C6, and the next cell is grabbing B7 times C7.
  • 02:55 What if I wanted to sum all of these guys up?
  • 02:58 Well, here's how we can do this.
  • 02:59 We can go down click in the cell immediately below these guys.
  • 03:03 We can go to the home tab, and
  • 03:04 over all on the right hand side you see this button here.
  • 03:08 It's a sum button.
  • 03:09 So if we click on it, it'll actually write the formula for us.
  • 03:12 And it looks at it and says, hey, look, the cells that you have above me,
  • 03:16 I can see a block of them, goes from D5 to D9.
  • 03:18 So it creates the formula for me.
  • 03:20 All I need to do now is press Enter, and it will actually sum all of these guys up.
  • 03:25 Now, if we can prove this cell by selecting all these cells, and
  • 03:29 if we look at down at the bottom we can see some statistics down here
  • 03:33 that tells us 1933.07 is the sum of all the selected cells.
  • 03:36 And, sure enough, that's what's showing up in our formula.
  • 03:39 Again, if we were to go back and change this, 56,
  • 03:42 it updates this formula as well as the sum formulas.
  • 03:47 So it's really kind of nice.
  • 03:49 What if I want to get an average instead?
  • 03:51 Say I want an average of the quantity.
  • 03:54 Well, I'll come over and instead of actually hitting the auto sum button,
  • 03:57 what I'll do is I'll click the little drop down arrow beside it, and
  • 04:00 you'll notice that I can actually get a couple of other different pieces as well.
  • 04:04 This time I'll choose Average.
  • 04:06 And it'll actually, again, put in the formula for me that says, hey,
  • 04:09 you need the average formula from B5 to B9.
  • 04:12 Hit Enter, and you can see that it actually commits that formula, as well.
  • 04:16 So, this is the real basics of working with formulas.
  • 04:19 Remember, again,
  • 04:20 if it starts with equals when we look inside the formula bar, it's a formula.
  • 04:25 If it does not, it's not a formula, it's just a constant,
  • 04:27 a hard coded number or value.
  • 04:31 We have all kinds of formulas and functions in Excel.
  • 04:33 You'll learn about those as we go forward.
  • 04:35 But it's a very,
  • 04:36 very useful feature to have your Autosum button over here to sum up those columns.
  • 04:40 And then the only other thing that we really need to remember is if we start
  • 04:43 with equals and we use a range to feed those formulas in, at that point it's
  • 04:48 plus, minus, the asterisk for multiply, the slash for divide, and
  • 04:53 the little hat on top of shift six there for doing the power of.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Formatting
05m:45s
Formula Anatomy
07m:19s
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