Solving Real-Life Problems in Excel
Solving Real-Life Problems in Excel
In this video, you’ll learn the basics of solving real-life problems using Microsoft Excel. Visit https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/excelfor… for our text-based lesson.
We hope you enjoy!
Content
0.909 -> [Goodwill] [Community] [Foundation] creating opportunities for a better life.
7.64 -> Sometimes trying to write a formula can be a bit like traveling without a map.
11.69 -> How exactly do you take a problem from real life and turn it into something that Excel can solve?
17.3 -> What you might
18.1 -> not realize is that you already have the skills you need to get there.
21.59 -> With some planning, some basic math, and a little knowledge of how formulas work you can get a lot farther than you might think.
30.8 -> Say you're at work and your boss comes to you with a problem.
34.358 -> Apparently, there's an event coming up and 614 people have already RSVP'd.
40.07 -> Unfortunately the venue only seats
42.29 -> 550. So how many folding chairs are we going to need to seat all the extra guests?
47.63 -> Like a lot of real-life problems, there's actually enough data here to turn this into a math problem.
52.72 -> You could even think of it as a word problem.
55.67 -> Remember doing those in school. So-and-so has 14 apples. She gives five of them away, you know the rest.
62.3 -> When it comes down to it all we have here is a simple subtraction
65.869 -> problem - one that you might even be able to solve in your head. Just
69.71 -> take the number of people coming,
71.9 -> subtract the number of seats at the venue, and that will give us our answer.
76.7 -> Now watch.
78.409 -> We're going to move the equal sign to the beginning and with this one tiny change, it's now in a format that Excel can understand.
86.09 -> For bonus points, you could even change the numbers to cell references, see how it works.
92.03 -> Let's take a look at the answer.
95.03 -> Looks like we're going to need 64 extra folding chairs. And because we used cell references, we can change the number of people attending and
103.43 -> the answer will update automatically.
108.2 -> Sometimes getting from problem to formula is easier than you thought it would be. Like you just saw.
113.509 -> Then there are times when you get stuck somewhere in the process, and you're not sure how to continue.
118.729 -> The important thing to remember is that you're still most of the way there, even if you're feeling unsure.
123.759 -> You just have to break the problem down into more manageable chunks.
128.81 -> Say, you're this guy
130.45 -> and you've been thinking a lot about your finances lately. You want to save up enough money to buy a brand-new, totally awesome
137.9 -> jet ski!
140.24 -> Here's the problem: the jet ski costs
143.63 -> $6,000, you're planning to raise the money over time by saving a hundred and ten dollars each month.
149.09 -> How many years will it take to save the full amount?
152.69 -> Even at a glance you can tell this problem is a little different from the last example. For one,
157.6 -> it's going to take more than a simple subtraction formula to figure it out.
162.41 -> Let's try breaking it down instead.
165.35 -> We are talking about how many years this is going to take.
168.65 -> Maybe we should figure out how much we can save in a year based on what we're setting aside each month.
173.81 -> The formula might look something like this:
176.63 -> monthly savings times the number of months in a year - a simple multiplication problem.
178.63 -> And the answer is...
183.86 -> Uh not too bad: one thousand three hundred and twenty dollars per year.
188.69 -> Now that we have this number
190.1 -> we're just one step away from solving the problem. All
193.28 -> we have to do is create a second formula that divides our goal by the amount that we'll be saving each year.
200.239 -> Before we continue, notice how we've really thought this through.
203.989 -> Instead of writing one big formula. We wrote two smaller formulas and that makes the problem much easier to handle.
211.73 -> Okay, it's the moment of truth.
215.599 -> Looks like it'll take about four and a half years to save enough money for the jet ski.
220.73 -> Man, that's a lot longer than I thought it would take. Maybe you can buy a used jet ski?
228.709 -> The truth is there's no formula for writing formulas.
232.129 -> But that's okay the journey from point A to point B is rarely as treacherous as it seems.
238.31 -> Sure there might be some issues along the way you might run into a problem that you're not sure how to solve,
243.739 -> but remember you already know more than you think you do. That's the key to solving real-life problems in Excel.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mMAGcZaItg