Negative Numbers Have Positive Result

[Guest]

I'm using Excel 2007 and am having trouble getting the correct result of
(-14.05) for an equation containing subtraction of two negative numbers.

The Excel values are:
B9 = - 450.00
F9 = - 400.00
C11 = 7.12

Using the above values, the equation formula should work like this:
= 2*(- 450.00 - - 400.00)/7.12 (note the subtracting of 2 negative numbers)
= 2*(-50)/7.12
= - 100/7.12
= - 14.05

I've setup Excel as: 2*(B9-F9)/C11 but the result always comes out as a
positive 14.05 instead of negative (- 14.05). I've formatted the cell for
Numbers and selected the negative format using the hyphen.

Any ideas? I'm just stumped.

Les

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I'm using Excel 2007 and am having trouble getting the correct result of
(-14.05) for an equation containing subtraction of two negative numbers.

The Excel values are:
B9 = - 450.00
F9 = - 400.00
C11 = 7.12

Using the above values, the equation formula should work like this:
= 2*(- 450.00 - - 400.00)/7.12 (note the subtracting of 2 negative numbers)
= 2*(-50)/7.12
= - 100/7.12
= - 14.05

I've setup Excel as: 2*(B9-F9)/C11 but the result always comes out as a
positive 14.05 instead of negative (- 14.05). I've formatted the cell for
Numbers and selected the negative format using the hyphen.

Any ideas? I'm just stumped.

Les

Perhaps the cell in which your formula is located is formatted to show negative
numbers as positive. Or there is a formatting issue with one of the data
cells. (I get -14.0449 using your formula and your data as you report it here.

Try Format/Cells/Number/General
--ron

 

[Roger Govier]

Hi Les

Works absolutely fine for me with XL2007 and returns -14.0449
Are you sure that you have 7.12 in C11, and not -7.12? Check C11 format

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Ron. I must have messed up something. When I cleared out the cell
and started over, the formula worked. Thanks again. - Les

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Roger. I must have messed up something because when I cleared out
the cell and started over it worked. Definitely in need of coffee to wake-up
the dead brain cells. -Les