Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier 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 June 11, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


1

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 whiz (and I am not), the answer may not be that obvious. All you need to do 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 (12350) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel 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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Two Keys with the Press of One

Sometimes it could be helpful to have Word substitute two characters for the one that you type, for instance to replace a ...

Discover More

Hiding Graphics

Graphics are a great addition to a worksheet, but there may be times when you don't want them printed. The easy way to ...

Discover More

Hiding Columns Not within a Date Range

Want to automatically hide some columns that don't meet a date criteria that you set? You can't do it automatically, but ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Getting the Name of the Parent Workbook

If you need to insert into a cell the name of the workbook in which a worksheet is contained, you can use the CELL ...

Discover More

Using SUMIF with Text Parameters

The SUMIF function is supposed to work just fine doing comparisons with text values. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, ...

Discover More

Returning the Left-most Characters

When working with text in a formula, you may need to extract the left-most characters from a string of text or from a ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is eight more than 7?

2022-06-11 08:31:11

JB

You could also use: =POWER(B7, 1/5)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.