How do I Calculate PI in an Excel formula?

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then *3.162 in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

The value of Pi approximates 3.142 not 3.162,
A more exact value is
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706 79
To see more digits visit
http://www.eveandersson.com/pi/digits/1000000

Excel gives Pi to 15 decimal places using =PI()

--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"jollydottie" wrote in message
...
Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then *3.162
in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

In an empty cell, enter:
=PI() and format the cell to display 15 places to see:

3.141592653589790

This is the approximation Excel uses for pi.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200825


"jollydottie" wrote:

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then *3.162 in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

If you have trouble remembering or finding the constant value, but have a
good memory for simple formulas, this will generate PI to 10 significant
figures (usually more than enough for any calculation involving it)...

=4*ATAN(1)

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"jollydottie" wrote in message
...
Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then *3.162
in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

on Excell
=E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 =139.0444
on my calc
=20 + 14.86 = 34.86 x 6 = 209.16 x PI = 14.462 x .500 = 7.23 x .85
= 6.1465- this is the right answer

So what am I doing wrong?

"Gary''s Student" wrote:

In an empty cell, enter:
=PI() and format the cell to display 15 places to see:

3.141592653589790

This is the approximation Excel uses for pi.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200825


"jollydottie" wrote:

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then *3.162 in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

First, enclose the first two parts in parentheses

(E15+14.86)*...

Second, how do you multiply 209.16 by 3.142 and get 14.462?

209.16 x PI = 14.462

--
__________________________________
HTH

Bob

"jollydottie" wrote in message
...
on Excell
=E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 =139.0444
on my calc
=20 + 14.86 = 34.86 x 6 = 209.16 x PI = 14.462 x .500 = 7.23 x
.85
= 6.1465- this is the right answer

So what am I doing wrong?

"Gary''s Student" wrote:

In an empty cell, enter:
=PI() and format the cell to display 15 places to see:

3.141592653589790

This is the approximation Excel uses for pi.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200825


"jollydottie" wrote:

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then
*3.162 in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

When you put your values in your calculator, you are doing your operation
cumulatively, two values at a time... that is not how Excel does its
calculations. Its operators (+,-,*,/,etc) have a precedence to them and you
must use parentheses to change them. Truthfully, I'm thinking your
calculator calculation may be wrong, but there is no way to tell from your
posting. IF the order you are performing your calculation on your calculator
is correct (note the emphasized word IF), then this is how you would have to
put the expression into Excel...

=(E15+14.86)*D15*PI()*F15*0.85

Note... There is something wrong with the calculation you showed us. You
have this as an intermediate step...

209.16 x PI = 14.462

But PI is more than 3, so multiplying those values can't give you a smaller
value the 209.16. Dividing instead of multiplying won't get the value you
show either, so I'm not sure what you actually meant to write.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"jollydottie" wrote in message
...
on Excell
=E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 =139.0444
on my calc
=20 + 14.86 = 34.86 x 6 = 209.16 x PI = 14.462 x .500 = 7.23 x
.85
= 6.1465- this is the right answer

So what am I doing wrong?

"Gary''s Student" wrote:

In an empty cell, enter:
=PI() and format the cell to display 15 places to see:

3.141592653589790

This is the approximation Excel uses for pi.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200825


"jollydottie" wrote:

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then
*3.162 in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

You've forgotten the precedence of arithmetic operations. If you want
something other than the standard precedence, you need to include
parentheses to specify the precedence.
=E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 is not the same as
=(E15+14.86)*D15*PI()*F15*0.85

Type the word precedence into Excel help.
--
David Biddulph

jollydottie wrote:
on Excell
=E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 =139.0444
on my calc
=20 + 14.86 = 34.86 x 6 = 209.16 x PI = 14.462 x .500 = 7.23
x .85 = 6.1465- this is the right answer

So what am I doing wrong?

"Gary''s Student" wrote:

In an empty cell, enter:
=PI() and format the cell to display 15 places to see:

3.141592653589790

This is the approximation Excel uses for pi.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200825


"jollydottie" wrote:

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then
*3.162 in Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

Why only 10 decimal places?
Mathematically Atan(4) = pi()/4,
Then 4*ATAN(4) and PI() must give exactly the same answer within the
precision of Excel (15 decimals)
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Rick Rothstein" wrote in message
...
If you have trouble remembering or finding the constant value, but have a
good memory for simple formulas, this will generate PI to 10 significant
figures (usually more than enough for any calculation involving it)...

=4*ATAN(1)

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"jollydottie" wrote in message
...
Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then *3.162
in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.

You MUST remember that Excel computes formula using a certain operator
order:
* and / (multiplication & division) happen before + and - (addition &
subtraction)

Lets look at =E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 (It seems that E15=20,D15=6 and
F15=0.5)
This becomes 20+14.86*5*3.142*0.5*0.85
Doing the multiplication first we get 20 + 119.04
Now do addition to get 139.04

It seems that you want to add 20 to 14.86 and then do the multiplications;
so use
=(E15+14.86)*D15*PI()*F15*0.85


You wrote
=20 + 14.86 = 34.86 x 6 = 209.16 x PI = 14.462 x .500 = 7.23 x .85
=6.1465
See how you mistakenly got 209.16 but then 209.18*pi must the about 200*3 =
600 (actually 657.0955) but I must have misread your data.

Let's us know if this helps

--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"jollydottie" wrote in message
...
on Excell
=E15+14.86*D15*PI()*F15*0.85 =139.0444
on my calc
=20 + 14.86 = 34.86 x 6 = 209.16 x PI = 14.462 x .500 = 7.23 x
.85
= 6.1465- this is the right answer

So what am I doing wrong?

"Gary''s Student" wrote:

In an empty cell, enter:
=PI() and format the cell to display 15 places to see:

3.141592653589790

This is the approximation Excel uses for pi.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200825


"jollydottie" wrote:

Using the calculator I get a different answer, if PI = 3.162. then
*3.162 in
Excell should give me the right answer but it doesn't.