Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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.
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, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Finding the Nth Root of a Number.
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2017-09-25 10:20:04
Ronald Finnerty
this did not answer the finding nth root question. It merely shows how nth root calculation work.
If I have a number and need to find the nth root of base 2 of the number i am no further along with your solution.
i only know the answer is 2^1/n so how do i find n?
2017-06-20 09:22:53
Dennis Costello
Just to be pedantic, I'll point out that Maarten is almost correct. He said:
2^-1 for instance is 0.5 (2/2^1)
2^-3 is 0.125 (2/2^3)
When he meant
2^-1 for instance is 0.5 (1 / 2^1)
2^-3 is 0.125 (1 / 2^3)
2016-06-30 17:20:39
Maarten Daams
You can even use negative exponents.
2^-1 for instance is 0.5 (2/2^1)
2^-3 is 0.125 (2/2^3)
etc.
And so on.
Of course fractional negative exponents work also, but that is more complicated
2016-06-11 06:08:43
Polarisking
The POWER function also works here,
POWER(B7,1/5)
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: 
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