‘Find Square Roots and Cube Roots in Microsoft Excel’ [Guide]

When working with Microsoft Excel, you can find the square root of numbers through two methods. You can either use the function which is already programmed in the Excel format called the ‘SQRT’ function. And the second method is manually adding a formula for the square root of the number you want a square root value for. Let’s look at how you can use both the methods.
But before we go ahead to how both the methods of finding the square root of a number can be worked with, you need to know the basic of using Excel Sheets. Sometimes we make minor errors in our entries on an Excel Sheet which can give us answers which are not accurate or as expected. To avoid such errors, the following important basics for using Excel sheets must be remembered at all times. And even if you have forgotten to use them and find an error, you can recheck with the list below to make sure if the error is because of missing out on these steps.

1. The ‘=’ sign. The equals to sign is the most important part of a formula. You miss out on this, and the formula or function that you entered will simply just appear as simple text. Adding ‘=’ in a cell, before typing in the formula or function is one part of implementing the formula on that cell.
2. The brackets (). The brackets play a very significant role in formulas and functions in Excel. So make sure you add the brackets in your function as they are supposed to be added. For most of the functions, brackets usually hold the value or the cell numbers over which the formula will be implemented.
3. Lastly, the enter key. Press the enter key after closing the brackets or completing the formula to finally make the function, function.

It is important to note that missing out on any of these would not give you the answers to the point or might even direct you to an error. So remember these.

Method 1

SQRT Function in Microsoft Excel

1. Open your Excel sheet to a blank page. Or, if you have already created a data file open that. The main idea is to have numbers for which you need a square root for.

   

2. Now, for example, say I want to know the square root of the number 7. I will write the function as shown in the picture below.

   

   I will begin with the equals to sign, and after adding that to the cell I want the values square root to show in,I will start typing ‘sqrt’. The minute type the s, a list of formulas will start to appear in a drop-down list for that cell. Now when I see the ‘sqrt’ formula, I will double-click on that and make it appear on the selected cell.

   

   The opening bracket has automatically appeared when you double click on the formula, you will add the cell number/value here, close the bracket, and press enter.

   

   

   

   The answer in both the cases will be the same whether you add the value itself, or the cell number.

   

   This is your square root answer for 7. If you are confused about whether you should add the cell number or the value directly, I would suggest that you add the cell number. Because there is a high possibility that you might have to make some changes in your Excel sheet. If the number in cell A2, is changed, and if you have written A2 in your functions formula, the value for square root will automatically change. Otherwise, you will have to manually change the value for every cell that you have added ‘7’ instead of ‘A2’.

Method 2

Manually Adding a Formula for Square Root

The formula that you would manually type in the cell, for finding the square root of a number is:

=number^(1/2)
or
=number^0.5

You can see the following images to be sure of how this can be done.

Cube Root

To find the cube root, you can manually type in =number^(1/3). The only difference here is number 3. You can also use the Power function, as shown in the image below to find the cube root of a number.