Chapter 19 – Math Exercise Sheets
Basic Math Facts: Adding Two Terms with an Answer Under 10 Say that you want to create a worksheet of addition problems. You want the problems to appear in a large font so that your first graders will have space to write the answer. You would like perhaps 15 different problems on the paper. You will use the RANDBETWEEN function. To use this function, specify two numbers as arguments in the function and separate the two arguments with a comma. For example, =RANDBETWEEN(1,20) would return a random whole number between 1 and 20, inclusive. 1. In cell B2, enter the formula =RANDBETWEEN(1,8). Figure 382
Finding a random number from 1-8
1a. In cell B3, you want to find a random number such that the answer will not exceed 9. Luckily, either argument in the function can be a reference to another cell instead of a number. You need to generate a random number between 0 and (9-B2) in cell B3. To handle any case, enter the formula =RANDBETWEEN(0,9-B2) in cell B3. Figure 383
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Finding a random number between 1 and 6
Note: Every time that you enter a new value or every time that you press the F9 key, Excel will recalculate all of the formulas on the worksheet. This includes generating new random numbers. Thus, as you enter the formula in B3, the value in B2 will probably change. To test that the logic is working, press the F9 key several times and you will see that you continually get new problems that total to less than 10.
2. Before making a whole sheet of these problems, take some time to get the first problem correctly formatted. With the cellpointer in B3, choose the bottom border button in the Formatting toolbar. Figure 384
Adding a line below the second number in an equation
This will add a line across the entire length of the bottom of cell B3. I think using the Borders icon for a bottom border is better than using the Underline icon, which would only extend the underline as far as the digits in the cell.
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Excel for Teachers