The formula returns the surface area of a cone with radius given in column B and height given in column C. Units are indicated generically with “u”, and the resulting area is units squared (u2).

The Greek letter π (“pi”) represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. In Excel, π is represented in a formula with the PI function, which returns the number 3.14159265358979, accurate to 15 digits: To square a number in Excel, you can use the exponentiation operator (^): To get the square root of a number, you can use the SQRT function: Rewriting the formula for surface area of a cone with Excel’s math operators, we get: Following Excel’s order of operations, exponentiation will occur before multiplication.

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.