Surds operations in Excel Spreadsheet.

[prashantakerkar]

I would like to know whether Surds operations work in Excel spreadsheets?

Example :
Cell E1= 2√3
Cell E2=4√3

Will Cell E3=Sum(E1,E2) = 6√3?

And other Surds operations viz product, division etc?

Will the Data type for inputing Surds values in Cells should be Decimal numbers?

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

 

[severynm]

Welcome!

Does the formula in E2 mean 4*sqrt(3) or the 4th root of 3?

 

[prashantakerkar]

Thanks.

4*sqrt(3)

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

 

[severynm]

Cool. In that case, its simple. Type literally that in as your excel formula.

MrExcel.xlsm
	E	F
1	3.464102
2	6.928203
3	10.3923	10.3923
4	2√3+4√3	6√3
178267

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
E1	E1	=2*SQRT(3)
E2	E2	=4*SQRT(3)
E3	E3	=SUM(E1:E2)
F3	F3	=6*SQRT(3)

 

[Eric W]

If you're looking to have something like this:

Book1
	G
3	2+3√3
4	7+3√7
5	0
Sheet11

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
G5	G5	=SUM(G3:G4)

where you have the actual square root sign "√" in a cell, then no, Excel does not have a data type to handle that. The examples I showed were stored as text, so the SUM didn't work.

There is one case where Excel does that, with complex numbers (a+b√-1). There is the COMPLEX function, and a bunch of related functions (IMSQRT, IMPRODUCT, etc.). If someone were so inclined, they could write a set of VBA functions to perform the surd arithmetic in the same manner.