Your calculations are numerically identical to the much simpler
=TRUNC(SQRT(DEVSQ($B2:$B6)/4),0)/AVERAGE($B2:$B6)
unless some cells in B2:B6 are not numeric.

Under the same conditions in Excel 2003, it is also numerically identical to
=TRUNC(STDEV($B2:$B6),0)/AVERAGE($B2:$B6)

Under the same conditions in earlier versions, there should only be an
appreciable difference from
=TRUNC(STDEV($B2:$B6),0)/AVERAGE($B2:$B6)
if your CV (RSD) is <<0.01%

What is COUNT($B2:$B6)? What are the values in $B2:$B6?

Jerry

nakedbamboo wrote:

I am trying to use the excel solver and am running into some issues. The
solver is giving me results that I know are wrong and I cannot get it to
give me the correct results. I am using it to calculate a linearity
which is based off of the STDEV and AVERAGE of a group of numbers. The
formula I am using is:

=TRUNC(SQRT(SUM(($B$2-AVERAGE($B$2:$B$6))^2,($B$3-AVERAGE($B$2:$B$6))^2,($B$4-AVERAGE($B$2:$B$6))^2,($B$5-AVERAGE($B$2:$B$6))^2,($B$6-AVERAGE($B$2:$B$6))^2)/4),0)/AVERAGE($B$2:$B$6)

This is basically the longhand version of STDEV/AVERAGE which I have
found gives the actual number I am looking for. For some reason, if I
take out the TRUNC or just use STDEV/AVERAGE, the number is a little
off. What I am using solver for, is to minimize the linearity by
changing the last number in the series.

For example, if all the numbers are the same, solver should give me
that number again. for a linearity of 0. It will not do this. If I try,
for example, all 1500s, solver will give 1639.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.