P1 – Explain how spreadsheets
can be used to solve complex
problems
George Larby
1
Typical Users
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There are many different things that can be done with
spreadsheets especially when it comes to solving complex
problems, and are fairly easy to use for a person who doesn’t
have much experience. There are endless amounts of functions
and formulae that can be used for mathematics, financial,
engineering and lots more, these functions include finding the
average of a set of data, adding, subtraction, mode, percentage
and more. You can also customize the data that you input by
changing the font size and colour to make certain information
stand out if it’s important. You can input this data in the form of
a chart to make important data easier to see as a visual aid.
You can use spreadsheets to find trends and then possibly
use this information to make forecasts.
2
Sources Used: www.teach-ict.com | yourbusiness.azcentral.com
Types of professions that could
use spreadsheets :
Accountants - keep track of
money, calculate profits, predict
performance of business, and
calculate staff wages.
Schools/college - keep track of
grades and take register.
Scientists - record experiment
results, analyse results, and
make predictions.
Engineers- solving complex
calculations.
Sources Used: computerworld.com | techinsider.io
Manipulating Complex Data to
Support Decisions
Spreadsheets are very versatile and it is possible to do many things with them in relation
to manipulating data. Spreadsheets are designed for numerical analysis and manipulation.
As a result of this they have hundreds of specialised functions for doing almost any kind of
manipulation you need. This is mainly for numbers, but other kinds of data, such as dates,
time, text and logical values can also be manipulated.
Spreadsheets can be used to solve complex problems because
it can help solve...