How to Find Intersection of Two Curves in Excel (with Easy Steps)

Fortunately, many of us use Excel in our business organizations. In any business organization, we use Excel to organize data as needed and make databases for the future. Moreover, one interesting thing is that we can find the intersection of two curves easily in Excel for better representation. However, I have used Microsoft Office 365 for the purpose of demonstration, and you can use other versions according to your preferences. In this article, I will show you a step-by-step procedure to find the intersection of two curves in Excel. Hence, read through the article to learn more and save time.

How to Find Intersection of Two Curves in Excel: Step-by-Step Procedures

Often, we need to find the intersection of two curves in certain business analytics, and the process becomes more interesting with Excel. However, the task is easy and simple. But you will need an arrangement in order to perform the operation properly. Hence, go through the following steps to find your desired intersection of two curves using Excel.

📌 Step 1: Select Dataset

For the purpose of demonstration, I have selected the following sample dataset. Here, the dataset contains 3 variables including X, Y1, and Y2.
Here, we have selected 2 sample equations in order to plot equations in Excel.

y = 3x² + 5x - 1

y = x³

Now, select columns X and Y1.
Then, click the Insert tab. Moreover, click on the Scatter command from the Charts group of commands.
Next, select the Scatter chart. After some modification, it will look like the image below.

📌 Step 2: Calculation to Get Intersection of Two Curves

Firstly, select cell E5 and insert the following formula to get the difference between Y1 and Y2.

=C5-D5

Secondly, hit the Enter key and utilize the AutoFill tool to the entire column.

Finally, you will get all the differences.

📌 Step 3: Find Intersection Point in Excel

Initially, select any cell within range E5:E11.
Then, go to the Data tab and select Forecast.
Next, select Goal Seek from the What-If Analysis drop-down menu.

After that, put 0 in To value. As there is no difference in the Y value of the two curves at the point of intersection.
Again, select the B8 cell in By changing cell because you have to make the difference 0 by changing the value of X.
Now, press OK.

Lastly, it will show that it has found a solution and press OK.

Final Output

Last but not least, you will get your desired point of intersection of two curves. However, it will appear on the same row that you have selected in the Goal Seek dialog box. Here, I have found the values of X = 4.15 and Y = 71.34.

Here, the difference is less than 10^-5 and it tends to be 0. Hence, the solution is correct enough.

However, you can check the value with the graph. From the graph, it is clearly evident that the point of intersection of the two curves is correct.

Read More:How to Show Intersection Point in Excel Graph

💬 Things to Remember

First of all, there is no direct chart option to get the intersecting point of two curves.
Then, you can modify the chart according to your personal preference.
However, you can choose any cell from the difference(Y1-Y2) range and it will provide the same solution every time.
At last, you can copy a row from the dataset and paste it to a different region in the sheet if you don’t want to overlap the solution with the dataset.

Download Practice Workbook

You can download the workbook used for the demonstration from the download link below.

Intersection of Two Curves.xlsx

Conclusion

These are all the steps you can follow to find the intersection of two curves in Excel. Overall, in terms of working with time, we need this for various purposes. I have shown multiple methods with their respective examples, but there can be many other iterations depending on numerous situations. Hopefully, you can now easily create the needed adjustments. I sincerely hope you learned something and enjoyed this guide. Please let us know in the comments section below if you have any queries or recommendations.

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FAQs

How to find the intersection of two sets of data in Excel? ›

Using Excel's Intersect Operator, you can also locate the intersection using named ranged cells intersection. Here is an illustration where I have labeled the numbers for Product A and B as PrdtA and PrdtB, month August as Aug. Now you can use the formula =PrdtA Aug to determine where these two ranges meet.

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How do you find the area of intersection of two curves? ›

The area between two curves is calculated by the formula: Area = ∫ba[f(x)−g(x)]dx ∫ a b [ f ( x ) − g ( x ) ] d x which is an absolute value of the area. It can never be negative.

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How to find intersection between two columns in Excel? ›

The intersection of two column lists in Excel can be found by using a combination of the IF and COUNTIF functions. The IF function is used to compare the two lists and return the values common to both lists, while the COUNTIF function is used to identify the number of times each value appears in the two lists.

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How do you find the intersection of two graphs? ›

When the graphs of y = f(x) and y = g(x) intersect , both graphs have exactly the same x and y values. So we can find the point or points of intersection by solving the equation f(x) = g(x). The solution of this equation will give us the x value(s) of the point(s) of intersection.

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What is the formula for the intersection of two sets? ›

The intersection of sets formula gives the total number of elements in a set (which is called the cardinal number of the set). It says, for the two finite sets A and B, n(A ∩ B) = n(A) + n(B) – n(A ∪ B).

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How do you use the intersection function in Excel? ›

Intersection of a Single Row and Column

Now if you use =C2:C13 B5:D5 [Note there is a single space in between the ranges, which is also our intersect operator in Excel], it will return 523 (the value in cell C5), which is the intersection of these 2 ranges.

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What is the formula for 2 intersecting lines? ›

The point of intersection formula is used to find the point of intersection of the two lines, that is the meeting point of two lines. These two lines can be represented by the equation a₁x+b₁y+c₁=0 and a₂x+b₂y+c₂=0, respectively. It is possible to find point of intersection of three or more lines.

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How do I find the intersection between two graphs in Excel? ›

To find the intersection point : STEP I : Calculate the difference between y1 and y2 at every level of x. STEP II : Compare the values of Y for the two lines in every successive row. Where m1: Gradient or Slope of line1, c1: Intercept of line1, m2: Gradient or Slope of line2, c2: Intercept of line2.

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How do you find the intersection of two coordinates? ›

To find the point of intersection algebraically, solve each equation for y, set the two expressions for y equal to each other, solve for x, and plug the value of x into either of the original equations to find the corresponding y-value. The values of x and y are the x- and y-values of the point of intersection.

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What is the formula for the intersection of two events? ›

P(A∩B) is the probability of both independent events “A” and "B" happening together, P(A∩B) formula can be written as P(A∩B) = P(A) × P(B), where, P(A∩B) = Probability of both independent events “A” and "B" happening together. P(A) = Probability of an event “A”