Why does excel use different denominator for variance and covarian

[Ales]

Why does excel use different denominator when calculating variance and
covariance? When working with samples it should be "n-1" in both cases. Just
"n" when calculating covariance is by my humble opinion wrong.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Ales wrote...

Why does excel use different denominator when calculating variance and

covariance? When working with samples it should be "n-1" in both cases. Just
"n" when calculating covariance is by my humble opinion wrong.

There are a few sources that don't agree with you, e.g.,

http://documents.wolfram.com/applications/timeseries/UsersGuidetoTimeSeries/1.5.1.html

But there are others that do. So it appears to be due to some ambiguity
in what's intended that doesn't originate with Excel.