20 Oct
2011
20 Oct
'11
9:03 a.m.
On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:42:03 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony
Duell) wrote:
Did/does any spreadsheet, on any platform, allow you
to put complex
numbers in the cells and operate on them?
Yes, of course you can treat a complex numner as 2 real numbers and
define the appropriate operations -- any spreadsheet will do that. I did
it in Visicalc. But as I use complex numbers a lot in AC circuit
analysis, and I know others who do too, I am suprised no spreadsheet
handles them as well as my HP calculators.
Surprise surprise, apparently Excel will let you work with complex
numbers. It seems you have to install the "Analysis Pak" (which
apparently is supplied with Excel, see e.g.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/load-the-analysis-toolpak-HP00…
for the 2003 version).
That of course doesn't mean that it handles them as well as your HP
calculators :-)
/Jonas