Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Finding the Nth Root of a Number.

Finding the Nth Root of a Number

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 4, 2022)

You may be wondering how to use Excel to derive different roots of a number. Finding a square root is easy: you just use the SQRT function. For instance, the following returns the square root of the value in cell B7:

=SQRT(B7)

What about different roots, however? What if you want the fifth root of the value in B7, instead of the square root? Unless you are a math wiz (and I am not), the answer may not be that obvious. All you need to so is raise the value to the power of 1/n. For instance, if you want that fifth root of B7, then you would use the following formula:

=B7^(1/5)

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2172) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Finding the Nth Root of a Number.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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