I’m having a weird issue with Google Sheets and I can’t figure out what’s going on. When I multiply 14 by 7.18 in a cell, the result shows up as 100.57. But when I check this same calculation on my regular calculator, I get 100.52 instead. That’s a difference of 0.05 which might not seem like much, but it’s throwing off my entire spreadsheet. Has anyone else run into this problem before? I’m wondering if there’s some setting I need to change or if this is a known bug. I’ve tried refreshing the page and even opening a new spreadsheet, but the same thing keeps happening. Any help would be really appreciated because I need these numbers to be accurate for my work.
hey pete, that’s strange! I’ve had minor issues w/ sheets too. maybe check if the cell is formatted as text? sometimes that messes things up. and yeah, hidden formulas can really play tricks! gl!
This is a floating point precision issue - happens in most spreadsheet apps, not just Google Sheets. Computers store decimals in binary, which creates tiny rounding errors during calculations. The difference between 100.52 and 100.57 means one of your numbers probably has hidden precision that doesn’t show in the cell. Check if either 14 or 7.18 came from other calculations instead of being typed directly. Try using ROUND to fix it: =ROUND(14*7.18,2) should give you the right result. I’ve learned this the hard way with financial calculations where every cent matters.
Had the same issue last month with budget calculations. What worked for me was clearing the cell completely and retyping the formula from scratch. Google Sheets sometimes carries over hidden formatting quirks from copied data that mess things up. Also check if your regional settings match your number format - I found mine was set to the wrong region, which screwed up decimal calculations. 14 × 7.18 definitely equals 100.52, so your calculator’s right. Try checking the cell’s number format too (Format > Number) - make sure it’s set to automatic or number instead of some custom format that’s interfering.