What's New: Excel 2007 Has Math Error

Reminiscent of the problem plaguing Intel's original Pentium CPUs, Excel 2007 apparently does not always multiply correctly. It turns out that multiplying 850*77.1 results in an answer of 100000, not 65535. Not only that, many combinations that should result in an answer of 65535 actually display an answer of 100000.

Adding to the confusion, if one tries to use the cell containing the answer in another calculation or function, Excel sometimes uses the 100000 number, and sometimes uses the correct answer of 65535, even if 100000 is displayed in the cell.

Microsoft is aware of the flaw and is testing a fix.

Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007 11:49 pm CDT

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