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Square root transformations

There are many more mathematical transformations that you can apply to your data. In fact, it's possible to create very complex transformations by building them step-by-step.

Asteroids have roughly elliptical orbit around the sun, as shown in this image.

Diagram of an elliptical orbit, with aphelion, perihelion, and semi-axes labelled

Using the distance from the center of the ellipse to the aphelion and the perihelion, you can can calculate the area of the orbit.

To solve this, you'll need:

  • SQRT() calculates the square root of a number.
  • PI() returns the mathematical constant.

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate Google Sheets

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Exercise instructions

  • In column H, calculate the semi-major axis as the aphelion (column F) plus perihelion (column G), all divided by two.
  • In column I, calculate the semi-minor axis as the square-root of the product of the aphelion and the perihelion.
  • In column J, calculate the area as pi times the semi-major axis (column H) times the semi-minor axis (column I).

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