Unit 3, Lesson 7
Spreadsheet Computations
Integrated Math 1
7.1
Warm-up
Dust Off Those Cobwebs
- A person walks 4 miles per hour for 2.5 hours. How far does the person walk?
- A rectangle has an area of 24 square centimeters. What could be its length and width?
- What is the area of this triangle?
7.2
Activity
A Spreadsheet Is a Calculator
Use a spreadsheet to compute each of the following. Type each computation in a new cell, instead of erasing a previous computation.
-
of 91 - The average of 2, 7, 8, and 11
7.3
Activity
Use the Contents of a Cell in a Calculation
- Type any number in cell A1, and another number in cell A2. Then in cell A3, type =A1+A2. What happens?
- In cell A4, compute the product of the numbers in A1 and A2.
- In cell A5, compute the number in A1 raised to the power of the number in A2.
- Now, type a new number in cell A1. What happens?
- Type a new number in cell A2. What happens?
- Use nearby cells to label the contents of each cell. For example, in cell B3, type "the sum of A1 and A2." (This is a good habit to get into. It will remind you and anyone else using the spreadsheet what each cell means.)
7.4
Activity
Solve Some Problems
For each problem:
- Estimate the answer before calculating anything.
- Use the spreadsheet to calculate the answer.
- Write down the answer and the formula that you used in the spreadsheet to calculate it.
- The speed limit on a highway is 110 kilometers per hour. How much time does it take a car to travel 132 kilometers at this speed?
- In a right triangle, the lengths of the sides that make a right angle are 98.7 cm and 24.6 cm. What is the area of the triangle?
- A recipe for fruit punch uses 2 cups of seltzer water,
cup of pineapple juice, and cup of cranberry juice. How many cups of fruit punch are in 5 batches of this recipe? - Check in with a partner, and resolve any discrepancies with your answer to the last question. Next, type 2,
, , and 5 in separate cells. (You may find it helpful to label cells next to them with the meaning of each number.) In a blank cell, type a formula for the total amount of fruit punch that uses the values in the other four cells. Now you should be able to easily figure out: - How much in 7.25 batches?
- How much in 5 batches if you change the recipe to 1.5 cups of seltzer water per batch?
- Change the ratio of the ingredients in the fruit punch so that you would like the flavor. How many total cups are in
batch?
Student Lesson Summary
A spreadsheet can be thought of as a type of calculator. For example, in a cell, you could type
Familiarize yourself with how your spreadsheet software works on your device.
- On some spreadsheet programs, an = symbol must be typed before the expression in the cell. (On others, it does not matter if your expression begins with =.)
- Know how to "submit" the expression so the computation takes place. If your device has a keyboard, it's likely the Enter key. On a touchscreen device, you may have to tap a check mark.
- Learn symbols to use for various operations, and how to find them on your keyboard. Here are the symbols used for some typical operations:
- + for add
- - for subtract or for a negative number (this symbol does double duty in most spreadsheets)
- * for multiply
- / for divide
-
/ for the fraction - ^ for an exponent
- . for a decimal point
- ( ) to tell it what to compute first (often needed around fractions)
Glossary
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