Final answer:
In spreadsheets, data that performs arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division is called formulas. These formulas can act on spreadsheet cell values, which may be considered as variables in the context of the calculation.
Step-by-step explanation:
In a spreadsheet, the data that performs operations like adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying are known as formulas. A formula in a spreadsheet is an expression that operates on values in cells. For example, to calculate the mean score from several exams, you would use the formula that adds the scores and then divides the sum by the number of exams. If you wanted to obtain a score as a proportion of a total possible score, you would use a formula that divides the individual score by the total possible score and perhaps multiplies by 100 to get a percentage.
Variables are the names given to quantities that can assume a range of values in equations or formulas. Within a spreadsheet, a cell's contents can act as a variable, for example, when referencing cell A1 in a formula, A1 can have different values. However, the concept of variables also extends to mathematics and economics, where it deals with theoretical equations and models.