How do I graph a quadratic equation in Excel?

1 Answer
Jan 28, 2015

I would start by choosing the first column of the spreadsheet for the values of #x# and the second for the correspondent calculated values of your quadratic.

Next I would select the two columns (highlighting them) and choose "chart" from the menu "insert".
enter image source here
To get:
enter image source here

You can also use the icon:
enter image source here
to select the graphing option.

The right graph to use is the "xy scatter". This is represented by the following icon (in the chart window):
enter image source here

You can now choose to plot only the points or lines and points.
I've chosen points and smoothed lines from the boxes on the right of the chart window:

enter image source here
In the above Picture you can see the graph and the two columns for #x# and for the quadratic (in this case I've chosen: #x^2+2x-4#). In the formula bar (see the red arrow) you can see the form of the quadratic (accepted by Excel) and the corresponding calculated value.

Note:
My version of Excel is in Portuguese but in English doesn’t change a lot.
If you want to plot a quadratic with Excel you have to choose your #x# values carefully to try to include interesting points, such as, the vertex and the intercepts.

Hope it helps