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To find the intersection of two lines in Excel, first you need to enter the equations for both lines into the same spreadsheet. Then, create a new column with the formula =Solver(, ). When Solver finds the intersection, it will display the x and y coordinates of the intersection in the new column. You can use the coordinates to plot the intersection on a graph.
You can use the following formulas to find the point of intersection of two straight lines in Excel:
Find the X-Value of Intersection:
=(INTERCEPT(y2,x2)-INTERCEPT(y1,x1))/(SLOPE(y1,x1)-SLOPE(y2,x2))
This formula assumes x1 and x2 represent an array of x-values for each line and y1 and y2 represent an array of y-values for each line.
Once you find this x-value, you can then plug that value into this formula to find the y-value of intersection:
Find the Y-Value of Intersection:
=SLOPE(y1,x1)*x_intercept+INTERCEPT(y1,x1)
The following step-by-step example shows how to use these formulas in practice.
Step 1: Enter the Values for Each Line
First, let’s enter the (x, y) coordinates for two lines:
Step 2: Find the X-Value of Intersection
Next, type the following formula into cell H2 to find the x-value of intersection:
=(INTERCEPT(E3:E6,D3:D6)-INTERCEPT(B3:B6,A3:A6))/(SLOPE(B3:B6,A3:A6)-SLOPE(E3:E6,D3:D6))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The x-value of intersection turns out to be 1.5.
Step 3: Find the Y-Value of Intersection
Next, type the following formula into cell H3 to find the y-value of intersection:
=SLOPE(B3:B6,A3:A6)*H2+INTERCEPT(B3:B6,A3:A6)
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The y-value of intersection turns out to be 3.
Step 4: Visualize the Intersection Point
If we plot each line on the same plot in Excel, we can see that the intersection point is indeed at the (x, y) coordinates of (1.5, 3):
This represents the point on the plot where the two lines intersect.