21 Oct
2011
21 Oct
'11
1:09 p.m.
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).
Interesting. This is not at all well-known (I know people who use Excel
and who need complex numbers who haven't found this...)
I must look into this and see just what it does. In particular, is a
complex number something that's sotred in oen cell or two (if the
latter, it's a kludge!)? Do the normal arithmetic operators work with
them or do you have special functions (written in prefix as opposed to
infix notation) to do this?
That of course doesn't mean that it handles them
as well as your HP
calculators :-)
Few things do :-)
-tony