!!!Homework Help!!!

[SMonczka]

I am trying to help my 12 year old son with a math project for school.
He has to make a scale model of our house. Being the computer wiz
that I am I suggested that we take the measurements that he had
compiled of the house and put them in the computer. Then let Excel
scale the measurements for him. This didn't work very well. Excel
doesn't seem to recognize one foot as being 12 inches. In other words
1 foot 6 inches ends up being 1.5 feet. This causes a problem when
trying to actually build the model.

What I need to know is…

Is there a way to scale measurements in Excel? I want to be able to
say that if 1 foot equals ½ inch the 18 feet 4 inches equals "?". Is
this possible?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Lady Layla]

See responses to the ?? you posted yesterday or the day before


: I am trying to help my 12 year old son with a math project for school.
: He has to make a scale model of our house. Being the computer wiz
: that I am I suggested that we take the measurements that he had
: compiled of the house and put them in the computer. Then let Excel
: scale the measurements for him. This didn't work very well. Excel
: doesn't seem to recognize one foot as being 12 inches. In other words
: 1 foot 6 inches ends up being 1.5 feet. This causes a problem when
: trying to actually build the model.
:
: What I need to know is.
:
: Is there a way to scale measurements in Excel? I want to be able to
: say that if 1 foot equals ½ inch the 18 feet 4 inches equals "?". Is
: this possible?
:
: Thanks
: Steve

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

S,

Tell us what you have in your cells. If you're typed "1 foot 6 inches,"
you'll not be able to do anything much with that. If you've put the feet
and inches in separate columns, you can. Or if you've put 1.5 feet, you can
scale that also.

 

[AlfD]

Hi!

Yes, it is possible, if a bit messy and quite educational!
You will need to be clear in your mind as to how you want to expres
the scaling process in*words* as well as how you will do it i
numbers.
First settle on a scale. How you express it will possibly determine ho
you use it. Some would say a scale of 2ft to 1 in. Others would ter
that 1:24 and others would round it to 1:25.

My personal preference is 1:24 and to use this I would first conver
all your house dimensions to inches:

Headings in row 1:
Actual ft | Actual in | Total in | Scaled in
(You might find better wording since that's ambiguous...)

A2 | 18
B2 | 4
C2 |=A2*12 + B2
deals with 18ft 4in.
List the rest of your actual measurements down cols A & B and copy th
C2 formula down as far as necessary.

Now introduce the factor 24 to get the scaled measurements in col D.

D2 | =C2/24. Copy down.

Format this column appropriately. My ruler has tenths and 16ths of a
inch. I'm happy with either: which do you want? For tenths format a
number with 1 d.p. For 16ths format using custom format ## ##/16. (I
you're not familiar with formatting, come back). If you want eighth
use ## #/8 etc.

Enough for now?

Al

 

[Carpie]

Wouldn't you just be able to put everything in inches? Excel would know that 12 inches is half of 24 inches
Forget about mixed unit of measures such as Feet + inches.

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Carpie,

Forget about mixed unit of measure? This is America. We love it. And
we'll never go to Metric, where everything is in decimal units, and SOOOO
much easier to work with.

OK, I'm through ranting. Think I'll get some more coffee.
--
Earl Kiosterud
mvpearl omitthisword at verizon period net
-------------------------------------------

Wouldn't you just be able to put everything in inches? Excel would know

that 12 inches is half of 24 inches.