Several readers have alerted me to a mathematical bug in, of all things, Microsoft Excel 2007–an inability to multiply that makes the 1998 Intel-chip math bug look like a warm-up act.

It turns out that when you multiply any two numbers that SHOULD equal 65,535… Excel gets 100,000.

Like this one: 850*77.1 =

or these:

5.1*12850 =
10.2*6425 =
20.4*3212.5 =
40.8*1606.25 =
77.1*850 =
154.2*425 =
212.5*308.4 =
308.4*212.5 =
425*154.2 =

(The problem doesn’t seem to exist in other versions, like Excel 2000 or Excel for Macintosh.)

Man. Let’s hope nobody uses Excel for anything involving, you know, MATH.

Microsoft’s response: “Microsoft recently learned of the flaw in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 that affects some calculations where the product should equal 65,535. We are currently in the process of developing and testing a fix for the flaw. Microsoft places a high priority on quickly responding to customer feedback and we are committed to finding ways to provide a better software experience.”

A “better software experience?!” You mean, better than “totally wrong”?