excel formula not giving the correct answer

WaywardDriver

DoaM said:

The fundamental issue is that 1.45 x 3.28 = 4.756 and not 4.76 ... 4.76 only show if you've set the cell formatting to 2 decimal places. The calculation still uses the 4.756 answer.

It's nothing to so with the artificial precision implied by the cell formatting but rather the mathematically correct answer is 4.76 using the implied accuracy with which the values are presented.

st999

WaywardDriver said:

DoaM said:

The fundamental issue is that 1.45 x 3.28 = 4.756 and not 4.76 ... 4.76 only show if you've set the cell formatting to 2 decimal places. The calculation still uses the 4.756 answer.

It's nothing to so with the artificial precision implied by the cell formatting but rather the mathematically correct answer is 4.76 using the implied accuracy with which the values are presented.

The correct answer I want is 4' 9 1/8" or even 4' 9 1/9" if that is the correct answer to what is 1.45 meters in feet, inches and fractions of an inch.

mksysb

st999 said:

WaywardDriver said:

Would be useful to know what OP is trying to achieve - academic or real-life exercise? if latter then convert to what precision? 

I just wondered why using excel if I put 4.76 in a cell and get 4' 9 1/8" yet if I did the same calculation using 1.45*3.28 which also shows in the cell as 4.76 I get 4' 9" and if there was a way to fix it?

 

Yes, use =ROUND(1.45*3.28,2)

WaywardDriver

st999 said:

WaywardDriver said:

DoaM said:

The fundamental issue is that 1.45 x 3.28 = 4.756 and not 4.76 ... 4.76 only show if you've set the cell formatting to 2 decimal places. The calculation still uses the 4.756 answer.

It's nothing to so with the artificial precision implied by the cell formatting but rather the mathematically correct answer is 4.76 using the implied accuracy with which the values are presented.

The correct answer I want is 4' 9 1/8" or even 4' 9 1/9" if that is the correct answer to what is 1.45 meters in feet, inches and fractions of an inch.

Sorry to sound like a government scientist but there is no correct answer. Converting 4' 9 1/8" and 4' 9 1/9" back to metres gives 1.4510 and 1.4506m resp so latter is more accurate but may not be the case for another example although, in general, the higher the denominator in the fraction used, the more "correct" it will be. e.g. 4' 9 3/32" converts back to 1.4502. 

Savvy_Sue

st999 said:

It doesn't explain the discrepancy between excel and LibreOffice though.

Anyone who told you LibreOffice and MSOffice are seamlessly interchangeable lied. There are minor discrepancies in the way they behave, particularly noticeable when trying to open the same spreadsheet in Excel and Calc. Settle on one or the other. 

st999

Savvy_Sue said:

st999 said:

It doesn't explain the discrepancy between excel and LibreOffice though.

Anyone who told you LibreOffice and MSOffice are seamlessly interchangeable lied. There are minor discrepancies in the way they behave, particularly noticeable when trying to open the same spreadsheet in Excel and Calc. Settle on one or the other. 

Nobody told me that.
I Have LibreOffice as well as Microsoft Office on my computer and just wondered if I would get the same result with LibreOffice and found out that I didn't.