Solving Simultaneous Equations

David asked is facing the task of solving some simultaneous equations in Excel, most with ten variables or more. He asked if there were some resources he could reference that would be good for learning how to do this.

Working with simultaneous equations is not for the mathematically faint-of-heart. The easiest way to solve simultaneous equations is to use matrix math, which is built into Excel. Such tasks are definitely not in the realm of simple mathematics, and a full discussion of simultaneous equations would be beyond the scope of ExcelTips. There are, however, several good resources you can use to help bring you up to speed. The following three sites have been suggested as starting points by other ExcelTips subscribers:

http://www.duncanwil.co.uk/simult.html
http://www.fenews.com/fen41/back_to_basics/back_to_basics.html
http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/Stefan_waner/RealWorld/Excel/Excelindexf2.html

If you prefer to use printed books instead of online resources, you might try Guide to Microsoft Excel 2002 for Scientists and Engineers (ISBN 0750656131) in which simultaneous equations are addressed beginning on page 210.