The Best Summer Job Offer Ever! Spreadsheet Directions Before beginning, answer questions 1 through 4. Now let s see if you made a wise choice of payment plan. Complete all the steps outlined below in order to answer the questions. A. Building a table to determine your daily wage for each payment plan and making a chart A1. Start new workbook. Open Microsoft Excel and start a new blank workbook. Type in the appropriate headings and days 1 through 5. Then type in your wage for the first day for each payment plan. A2. Enter formula for Payment Plan 1. Then, have the computer calculate your wage on day 2 for Plan 1 by typing in the appropriate equation for the computer to use. In this case, "=B2+2" and type "enter". You should get what is in cell B2 plus 2 which should be 52. A3. Drag formula down the column. Next, place the cursor in the lower right hand corner of the cell B3 where there is a small black square and you should see a bold "+" appear. Left click with the black "+" and drag it down the column to B6. This allows you to drag the formula from B3 down into the rest of the cells easily. A4. Type in formula for Payment Plan 2 and drag it down the column. We will do the same for Plan 2 except the plan is structured differently. In this case, we double our wage everyday. So, in cell C3 type in the formula "=C2*2" and "enter".
Again drag the formula down the column to cell C6. A6. Drag all 4 columns down to complete the chart to 22 days of work. Now comes the fun and easy part. Simply highlight the bottom row of your chart, cells A6, B6, C6 and D6. Then place the cursor in the lower right hand corner of the cell D6 where there is a small black square and you should see a bold "+" appear. Left click with the black "+" and drag it down the column until you get to row 23. Release and the computer should calculate everything for you! A5. Type in formula for Payment Plan 3 and drag it down the column. We now calculate your wage under payment plan 3. To do that we square the number of days worked. In cell D3, then, type "A3^2" and "enter". Cell A3 represents the day number that you have worked and "^2" means to raise to the 2nd power. Which plan will give you the greatest daily wage? Can you answer the first part of question 5?
B. Calculate your cumulative salary for each payment plan B1. Calculate your cumulative income for Payment Plan 1. To do this for Plan1, place your cursor in cell B24. Enter the formula "SUM(B2:B23)" and type "enter". "SUM" will add up all the cells from B2 to B23. B2. Calculate total salary for all payment plans. Then Drag that formula in cell B24 to cell D24 to calculate the cumulative salary for each plan. Now you should be able to answer question 5.
C. Graph your daily wage for each payment plan C1. Highlight the data for Plan 1 and select the chart wizard. Highlight the exact data for plan 1 (cells B2 to B23) but do not highlight the cumulative salary. Select the chart wizard from the tool bar and create a line graph. Then click "Next" and "Next" again. C2. Title graph, label axes and remove legend. Make appropriate changes in the "Titles" tab and then go to the "Legend" tab and select to remove the legend. Then you can click "Finish".
D. Displaying the equation of a line D1. Add trendline. Right click on top of the line in your graph. You should see a menu that has an option to "Add Trendline..." Select that option. D2. Select the type of trendline. For Plan 1 select "Linear". When you make graphs for the other payment plans you will have to select a trendline that fits your graph. For Plan 2 select "Power". For Plan 3 select "Exponential".
D3. Select to display equation of a line. Select the "Options" tab and select to "Display equation on chart". D4. Completed graph of Payment Plan 1. Now you have completed the first payment plan, go back to C1 and highlight the data for Payment Plan 2 and completed a graph including the equation of a line. Do the same for Payment Plan 3. Now try and answer question 8. Let s say you are planning a summer vacation, so you will not be able to work the whole summer. You think you may have to quit partway through your employment. This could affect the payment plan you use. Create 3 columns to calculate your total salary under each of the 3 payment plans at the end of each day. Next graph the daily total salary after each day and for each payment plan on the same graph. You should have 3 lines on the graph, one for each payment plan.
E. Graphing the daily cumulative salary for each payment plan E1. Create 3 new columns. Create three new columns to the right of the original three. If you want to have the column headings fit in the column width better, Select Cell under the Format heading in the toolbar. Change your options to wrap text and top vertical alignment. E2. Add appropriate equations into each column. The first day s cumulative salary is easy to enter. After that the cumulative salary equals the cumulative salary as of the previous day plus the current day s wages. Enter the formula for each payment plan and drag the formula down the column to complete the chart.
Be sure that your cumulative salary on day 22 is the same as the total salary you calculated in step B2. Now you can determine what your cumulative salary will be for any day of the month you are employed. Now try and answer questions 6 & 7. E3. Graph all 3 columns on one graph. Now graph your results for each payment plan on the same graph. Highlight the data you are graphing. Select the chart wizard and select a line graph as you did in C1. When you get to step 2 of 4, change the names of series 1, 2 and 3 to Plan 1, 2 and 3. On step 3 of 4, enter a title for the graph as when as labels for your axes. When you click Finish you will have your completed graph.
E4. Changing the scale on the y-axis. Place your cursor over the y-axis and double click. A menu will appear. Change the scale of the y-axis so that the maximum value is $2500. This will allow you to read the graph in more detail.
Now try and answer questions 9 & 10.