The standard deviation formula above says to find the square of each difference from the average. That is multiplying the value by itself. Textbooks usually indicate the square with a superscript 2 for example 22=4. In Excel exponents are indicated using the caret symbol (^). For example =2^2 would return a value of 4. The caret symbol can be used to find the cube value or any other power. The number after the caret tells Excel which power to use, for example: cube =2^3 =8, power of ten =2^10 =1024 or commonly in science =10^3 =1000.