How To Use Microsoft Excel For Mathematical Calculations

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

What is Microsoft Excel

When you buy a new laptop, there are some system applications you cannot help but must have them in your system. One of that system application is Microsoft office. Microsoft office is a system application that was developed by Microsoft and it houses all the essential office applications all in one package. One of the applications available as part of the Microsoft application is the Microsoft excel package.

Microsoft excel is a spreadsheet package that is embedded in Microsoft office application. The Microsoft excel package as well as the Microsoft office can basically be used for writing names, commodity details etc., however, Microsoft excel does more than a common man can imagine.

Some people think that excel is for tabulating names since it has some lines while others feel that excel is for tabulating numbers for easy recording. Microsoft excel goes beyond just writing of names or numbers. You can do a lot of calculations in an excel and we will be explaining some of them in this article.

Microsoft office is generally a great software that should exist in everyone's system. The package as a whole is something you can never avoid to use at least once before a full year runs out. For me, anytime I buy a new system or format my current system, there are some applications i install first before others. Few of the applications that are a must have for me after a successful installation of the operation system (WIN11) are Microsoft office (Microsoft excel is embedded in this application by default), WhatsApp (for easy communication via my system), Browsers (for surfing the internet easily), Notepad ++ (for all my text file edits) and Adobe acrobat reader (this helps me to open and edit pdf files). Other applications aside the ones mentioned above comes later as i continue to use my system but they are never form part of my major applications.

Going back to our major focus today, Microsoft excel is an application that allows you do lots of calculation without actually using a calculator. Excel can act as your calculator if you find yourself where calculator is needed and it is not readily available. In this article, i will explain some of the calculations with pictures. Each of the binary operation normally starts with an = before the function.

Mathematical Calculations in Microsoft Excel

There are lots of calculations available in an excel however, we will be discussing few of them in our article. As an excel newbie is plans to start using Microsoft excel professionally, these basic calculations are the ones you can never avoid but use them if not daily but at least once a week or twice a month at the minimum.

The calculations listed below are the must know for excel newbies that plan to use Microsoft excel on a professional level.

Addition in Microsoft Excel

Fig 1: Raw data for all our excel calculations

In the picture above, if you want to do the addition of the five numbers and you need the sum to be in the space beside total, you can use sum function. As seen in the picture above, the numbers to be calculated falls within B10 and B14, the calculation formular will hence be =SUM(B10:B14). The sum will now be equal to 166 as seen in the picture below. You can try it out from your end and share observation in the comment box.

Fig 2: Addition function in use

Fig 3: Output after using addition function

You can decide to add the numbers directly or add the cells as in picture below. Both will give same answer of 116.

Fig 4: Adding the numbers directly on the excel

Calculating mean in excel

In excel, while calculating the mean of a number range, we use the function average. Using our raw data as in Fig 1, the mean will look like the figure below;

Fig 5: Using Average function to calculate mean

Typically, the average of the above is same as 14+16+30+40+12/5 = 23.2 and same can be seen in the picture below;

Fig 6: Output of the average function above

Multiplication in excel

Multiplication in Microsoft excel is similar to the ones mentioned above however, we use the function product to denote for multiplication as seen in the figure below. 

Fig 7: Using product function for multiplication

Using same data as in fig 1 raw data above, the multiplication will look like 14*16*30*40*12 which will give rise to the product as seen below. Direct multiplication can also work in the excel in place of the product function.

Fig 8: Output of the product of the numbers in our raw data

Subtraction in excel

There is no particular function that is dedicated to subtraction. Using the figure in fig 1 raw data, if you want to subtract B13 from B10, you can do it directly on the excel as seen in the figure below

Fig 9: Direct subtraction using our raw data

The above will do the subtraction and then give rise to the figure below as the total.

Fig 10: Output of the subtraction using our raw data

Calculating Min in Excel

Min in Microsoft excel can also be the least of the numbers and using the raw data in Fig 1, the Min will automatically be 12 however, lets confirm it on the excel using the figure below

Fig 11: Using Min function in an excel

After the system calculation, it will look like the picture below

Fig 12: Output of the Min calculation above

Calculating Median in excel

In a situation where you have a huge set of numbers and you want to know the particular number that is in the middle, then median will help you to decide that.

When we talk about the median of a set of numbers, it does not directly mean the middle number in the set of numbers. If you base your calculation like that, you will obviously get a wrong answer.

If you want to get the median of a set of numbers, you will need to first rearrange the set of number in either an ascending order or a descending order before you now determine the median.

If the numbers are many, you will notice that it will be very difficult to rearrange all the numbers without making any mistake. In this kind of scenario, Microsoft excel will make all your work easier and faster for you.

Using same data as in the Fig 1 above, the numbers are 14, 16, 30, 44, 12 however, to get the median, we will first of all rearrange them in ascending or descending order which will look like this 12, 14, 16, 30, 40.

Looking at the rearranged data above, the median will automatically be 16. Confirming our answer in an excel, the formula is denoted with MEDIAN and it will look like the excel below

Fig 13: Using Median function in an excel

After the calculation on the excel, the answer will look like the figure below

Fig 13: Output of using median function on our raw data

Calculating Max in excel

Max is the opposite of Min in an excel. When we talk of Min, we mean the minimum number in the set of numbers and in the same vein, when we talk of Max, we mean the maximum number in the set of numbers. 

Looking at our set of numbers as in Fig 1, the numbers are 14, 16, 30, 44, 12 and looking at all the numbers, the max will automatically be the number 44. Lets confirm our answer using the excel as in the picture below

Image 1: Raw data for calculations

After the whole calculation from the excel, the final answer will look like picture one below

Fig 14: Output of using Max function on our raw data

In excel, there are lots of functions and formulas that can not be covered in this article alone. Some formulas pertain to date, time, month etc. but for the sake of this article, i will be stopping the tutorial here. 

If you found value in this article, please come back for more tutorials and if you have an issue on excel that you will need my expertise on, i will be more than glad to be of service to you. Please use to comment box below this article for all your enquiries. You are also free to use our contact form if you need a more personalized answer to you query.