2. What is a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet is a piece of software which is used to work out calculations.

But if you learn a little bit about spreadsheets and have a play with them, you will soon find out that they can do a whole lot more than simply add up a column of numbers.

Spreadsheets can handle all of the financial calculations for a large business, they can be used to work with statistics and to calculate probability or other statistical information, they can do complex trigonometry. Not only that, they can also make pretty snazzy graphs and charts that you can use to impress people.

Spreadsheets can also be used as a simple flat-file database.

But, at the end of the day, a spreadsheet really is just a glorified calculator - albeit a pretty amazing one!