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Final Friday Fix: June Challenge

30 June 2017

On the final Friday of each month, we’re going to set Excel for you to puzzle over so that you can get your “Excel fix”. Challenge your office colleagues to see who can solve the puzzle quickest. There’s no prizes at this stage, you’re playing for bragging rights only!

Sum Thing is Wrong

If there is one thing that every rookie knows how to do in Excel, it’s how to sum:

If the values 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are entered in cells B2:B6 (as above), by holding down the keys ALT + = in cell B7 the sum of the above will be calculated automatically. Maybe not everyone knows the shortcut, but everyone knows what the SUM function does.

The Challenge

This month’s challenge is very simple. In the attached Excel file, the following summation has been constructed:

Cell C8 supposedly sums the values in cells C3:C7. Except it doesn’t. When I went to school, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 equalled 15, not 21. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine what’s gone wrong.

Sound easy? Have a go. We’ll publish the answer in Monday’s blog. Have a great weekend!

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