No 'Squared' function in numbers

to square a number you multiply the number times itself.

so if the value you want to square is in cell A1 and you want the answer in B1:

B1=A1×A1

you would type this like this:

1) select cell B1

2) type "=B1*B1" without the double quotes

You can also use:

B1=A1^2

which is A1 tho the power up 2

Neil,

you should know that people reading here will expect the up (or down, or left, or right) arrows are the key on the keyboard that move the cursor arround:

You should use "caret" or "cirumflex" as I previoulsy mentioned.

Neil,

Gong!

Even Excel, the app with seven different ways to do anything, doesn't have a function explicitly for squaring.

Add to Wayne's list:

=POWER(B2, 2)

This is the solution for those who must have a function, but even this is multipurpose, and so I suppose would be inelegant in your book. My definition of elegant is rather different.

Jerry

N oworries eitehr way i know now...and the up arrow is is

OK, as long as you are comfortable. The shift-8, a circumflex accent or caret, as Wayne pointed out, is a long way from the up-arrow key on most keyboards.

Jerry

Hi Neil,

"Not quite...from me it was the Alt (or Option Key) followed by the letter "I" . this does not display on the screen, until after the number for the power (in this case 2) is pressed."

That one is the circumflex accent, a zero width character intended to be placed as an accent above a second character, such as the letter i: î Î. There is a built-in list of characters which can accept the circumflex, and these when typed following option-i, will fit under the accent: â, ê, ô, û. If any other character is typed immediately following the following option-i, the zero-width circumflex is replaced with a non-zero width character (one that takes up space), and the typed character ˆfollows it.

Shift-6 is the carat ^,and is the one used as the 'to the power' operator.

Although your observations indicate that either will work in your situation, I'd suggest sticking with shift-6, the character originally assigned to this job, to avoid possible issues in transferring yur spreadsheets to another computer or a different application.

Regards,

Barry

the circumflex or Caret

("^") is typed using the key combination <shift> + 6:

What kind of keyboard are you using?

so now we have for typing a caret:

from Wayne: shift + 6

from Neil: shift + 2

From Jerry: shift + 8

Hmmm

My mistake, it is indeed a shift-6 on this MBP.

Jerry