" wrote:

DeeJay wrote:
I noticed that Excel 2003 calculates:
7.5*1.2=8.7 when the correct answer is 9.0. It did this as part of a
formula where the 1.2 answer came from calculating another set of numbers.
When I asked Excel to calculate this answer by simply inputting those two
numbers the correct answer of 9.0 came out. Does anyone have an answer as
to why it does that?!

In a word, round-off error. (Okay, that's two or threee words.)

The "1.2" that you see in some cell is not really 1.2.
It is probably close to 1.16. Format that cell with
6 or so decimal places, and you will see what I mean.
And by the way, the "8.7" is probably not 8.7.

If you want "1.2" to actually be 1.2, there are a couple
ways to make that happen. The "best" way is to change
the formula that results in "1.2" to =ROUND(formula,1).

Alternatively, there is a Tools / Options / Calculation
option to cause this for all calculations. But because
the affects the entire spreadsheet, it can have unexpected
consequences.


Thank you- I will do that and see what happens. Thanks for the answer!