In this new series, Peter Bartholomew provides both insight into the birth of the modern spreadsheet and some best practise guidance on how to make the best use of Excel within the context of engineering analysis. The spreadsheet created is available for download from NAFEMS at using this link. It includes three sheets, the first is the calculation done in the traditional way (with a higher risk of errors), the second uses names and arrays and the third is the same as the second but incomplete, to allow the reader to try out the method for themselves.