Re: Excel Math Bug
From: Aristotle Polonium (sub_at_urb.com)
Date: 08/03/04
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Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 14:30:04 -0500
>
>
> BOULDERDASH!!!
>
>
Is this a suburb of Boulder, Colorado? If not, it should be.
>
>
> This is a horrible bug in Excel
>
>
Anyone with a modicum of literacy must agree.
Ari
_________________________________________________________
"Stephen J. Herschkorn" <herschko@rutcor.rutgers.edu> wrote in message news:410EE45C.6040403@rutcor.rutgers.edu...
> fred wrote:
>
> >Do any of you SCI.MATH whizes want to weigh in on this?
> >
> >MS Excel calculates "=-5^2" as 25, not as -25.
> >This is because 'negation' is handled first in Excel. (!?)
> >If you put a zero in the equation,
> >as in "=0-5^2", your answer changes to -25.
> >
> >Is this in line with standard math rules?
> >Is negation different than subtraction?
> >
> >I'm getting a lot of comments in the Excel NG
> >basically saying that "it's in the help section, so too bad".
> >
> >I've had lots of math and as far as I know
> >negation and subtraction are the same thing.
> >
>
> Alan Beban wrote:
>
> > Well, this is an Excel forum, so one should expect a programming point
> > of view. But if you search on mathematical notation generally, I
> > think negation is viewed as a unary operator, while subtraction is
> > viewed as a binary operator; and the discussions are not much clearer
> > in that context. My own view, not as a mathematician, is that the
> > issue revolving around how to evaluate -1^2 depends on some *order of
> > precedence*, and is totally conventional as to negation and
> > exponientation.
>
> draw a graph of y = -x^2, and what will you get?
>
> Stating it is a documented convention is not a legitimate argument.
> What if Microsoft(R) buried in its documentation that addition takes
> precedence over multiplication? That the spell checker would always
> change word "friend" to "freind"? That the sum function adds only every
> other term? That using a "q" in one of its products would cause the
> system to reboot? These effects would be just as valid by this logic.
>
> I have sent this comment to Microsoft(R), though I expect no good to
> come of it.
>
>
> --
> Stephen J. Herschkorn herschko@rutcor.rutgers.edu
>
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