Year 7 Information Technology



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Year 7 Information Technology

Excel the Excellent

Task

Excel is a powerful Spreadsheet program that can be used for all sorts of interesting tasks. Today you will use excel to:

• Enter numbers, text, formulas and functions

• Calculate your age in days, hours, minutes and seconds

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Create a folder

In your IT folder, create a folder called “Excel” if you haven’t already. All the files you make for this activity should be stored in here.

2. Using Excel to calculate your age

Layout the first sheet of your Excel workbook so that it looks like this:

In cell B1, enter your age.

Work out the number of leap years in your life and put the number next to the “Leap Years” label.

Work out the number of days since your last birthday and enter that in the proper cell. Your teacher will help you with the calculation.

Now we will write a formula to work out how old you are in days. We will multiply your age by 365, then add a day for each leap year and the days since your last birthday. Write it like this: =(B1*365)+B3+B5

To work out your age in hours you just need to multiply the days by the number of hours in a day. Here’s the formula. =B11*24

Use the same idea to write your own formulas for the minutes and hours. Your teaecher will show you how to format the numbers with commas so that they are easier to read.

Your finished product should look like the one over the page.

I hope you are not 1.7 Billion seconds old like the person in this spreadsheet!

Make sure you have saved your workbook!

3. Now let’s do it the easy way

Rename your first sheet and call it, “Hard Way”

Call the other sheet, “Easy Way”

Go to the second sheet and lay it out just like the picture below.

Excel has a special function to tell us what the date and time is right now. In B3 enter the formula:

=now()

Now all you have to do to work out your age in days is to subtract your birthday from now. Use this formula.

=B3-B1

You can work out the hours, minutes and seconds just like you did before. Put those formulas in.

The good thing about using the now() formula is that you can update the results anytime you like by pressing the F9 key.

If you keep your finger on the F9 key the results will update continuously. You will be able to see the seconds ticking over. You can watch your life ticking away.

Enjoy!

Make sure you save your spreadsheet.

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