Excel Review-Playground Problem
Your esteemed fraternity “Lamda, Lamda, Lambchops” has raised $30,000 in funds toward a community
service project to build a park at the local Children’s Hospital. Your fraternity will use this money to buy
the building materials and contract labor necessary for this project. The labor to install the grass sod and
sand is free since your fraternity and a local sorority “Alpha Alpha Alphabet” will do the work. A
diagram of the proposed playground shows a ball field and playground area surrounded by a grassy picnic
area. You have compiled a list of prices and input them into an Excel worksheet named Prices. In the
same workbook you have compiled a list of playground dimensions and conversion factors - this
worksheet is named Dim. Now you are ready to fill in the final information to obtain the total project
costs. You created a third worksheet named Costs.
Lamda Lamda Lambchops - Playground Project
200 ft
Picnic areas
100 ft
Ball fields
Playground
20 ft
100 ft
50 ft
30 ft
Additional information:

All areas except the playground will be covered with grass sod which is purchased by the
square yard (SY)

The playground area will be covered with sand that is purchased in 50lb. Bags. The sand
will be piled 2 feet deep.

The entire outside perimeter of the park will be fenced with wood fencing.

The playground area will be fenced on all four sides with the same wood fencing (don’t want
those toddlers to escape!!).

There are a total of 5 gates - one on each side of the outside perimeter, and one into the
playground area

The range prices!A2:E6 has been named data.

Column E on the prices! Table shows a True value if a contractor is being used for
installation of that item. The contractor's labor rate is displayed in cell prices!C8 and has
been named labor

Conversion Factors found on “dim” worksheet:

There are 9 square feet (SF) per square yard (SY)

Each 50lb bag covers 1.5 cubic feet (CF – length x width x depth).
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A
B
Costs
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
C
D
total
material
unit
quantity cost
sy
2156
2694
50lb bag
800
4000
item
Grass Sod
Sand
Playground
Equipment
Fencing
Gates
Total Cost
each
ft
each
1
700
5
10000
7000
3000
26694
E
F
total labor Total
cost
Cost
0
2694
0
4000
563
1575
563
2700
10563
8575
3563
29394
G
H
I
%
material
10%
15%
% of
total
labor
0%
0%
% of
total
9%
14%
37%
26%
11%
100%
21%
58%
21%
100%
36%
29%
12%
100%
8
TRUE
FALSE
9 Collect Enough $
10 any over 50%
Material costs
for items
installed by
11 fraternity
6694
Prices
A
1
2
3
4
5
6
item
Gates
Grass Sod
Fencing
Playground
Equipment
Sand
B
C
D
unit
each
SY
Ft
each
50lb. Bag
$ 10,000.00
$
5.00
25.00
0.10
7
Labor
hour
9 all installed by contractor
10 only sod installed by contractor
8
$22.50
FALSE
FALSE
Dim
E
material labor
by
$/unit
hrs/unit contractor
$
600.00
5.00
TRUE
$
1.25
0.30
FALSE
$
10.00
0.10
TRUE
TRUE
FALSE
A
1
2
3
4
5
B
C
Dimensions and Unit Conversions
area
length (ft)
width (ft)
entire lot
200
100
ball field
100
50
playground
30
20
6
square feet per square
7 yard (SF/SY)
8 sand depth in feet
cubic feet (CF) per 50lb.
9 Sandbag
Amount of money
10 raised
9
2
1.5
$
30,000
Page 65
1. Write an Excel formula for cell costs!C2 to calculate the quantity of grass sod in square yards to be
purchased. All areas except the playground will have grass sod.
2. Write an Excel formula for cell costs!C3 to calculate the number of sand bags to be purchased. Only
the playground area will be covered with sand to a 2 foot depth. Each 50 pound bag will contains 1.5
cubic feet (CF) of sand.
3. Write an Excel formula for cell costs!C5 to calculate the quantity of wooden fencing in feet to be
purchased. Both the outside perimeter and the playground areas will be fenced. You do not need to
deduct any length for gates.
4. Write an Excel formula is cell costs!D2 which can be copied down to calculate the total material cost in
dollars of grass sod..
5. Write an Excel formula is cell costs!E2 which can be copied down to calculate the total labor cost in
dollars of grass sod. (hint: only certain items will have labor costs since your fraternity will be installing
some of the materials themselves).
6. Write an Excel formula in cell costs!F2 to calculate the total cost of all the materials and labor.
Assume you will copy the formula down the column.
7. Write an Excel formula in cell costs!D7 to calculate the total cost of all the materials. Assume you will
copy the formula across into cells E7 and F7.
8. Write an Excel formula in cell costs!G2 to calculate grass sod's percent of total material cost. Assume
you will copy the formula down and across into columns H and I to calculate the percent of labor and
percent of total.
9. Write an Excel formula in cell costs!F9 to determine if your fraternity has collected enough money
(amount raised is listed on worksheet dim) to complete the park project.
10. Write and Excel formula (true/false) in cell costs!F10 to determine if any of the cost components
exceed 50% of the total cost.
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11. Instead of raising the money all in one year your fraternity decided to take a mortgage for the total
cost of $30,000 and pay it back over 10 years. The current loan rate at your bank is 8% per year
compounded monthly. Write an Excel formula to determine the amount of money you would need to
raise each year in order to cover the required payments of this loan. You do not need to use cell
references when writing your formula.
12. Another possibility to fund this project is to use the savings bond that was left to the fraternity from a
wealthy alumna. The bond was originally purchased for $5000 and has been accruing interest at the rate
of 10% per year compounded quarterly for the last 5 years. Write an Excel formula to determine the
current value of the bond. You do not need to use cell references when writing your formula.
13.Write an Excel formula in cell prices!D9 to determine if all items will be installed by a contractor.
14.Write an Excel formula in cell prices!D10 to determine if only sod is installed by a contractor.
15. Write an Excel formula in cell costs!D11 to determine the total cost of materials for items which are
not being installed by contractors.
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