divide or multiply if number between 1 and 0

Question

This is a math question in the context of an Excel spreadsheet. I have an Excel spreadsheet with 10 rows, where I am dividing the value in ColumnB by the value in ColumnA to create a new number like this

        A       B        New Number 
Bill    1.14    156      136.842  (156 / 1.14)

The new number ( as I call it ) is being used to compare each of the rows against each other i.e. I am sorting from biggest to smallest based on this "new number"

I am running into confusion when the number in columnA is less than 1. If it's less than 1 do I still divide by the value in ColumnA or do I multiply by the value in ColumnA? You can see from below, that the output will differ significantly

Mike    0.48   250      520 (250 / .48)

or

Mike    0.48   250      120 (250 * .48)

In my head, I am thinking that I must be stupid. If I divide by the value in ColumnA for the first 9 rows (where value in columnA is greater than 1), then I also have to do it for the 10th row (where value in columnA is less than 1), however, the total of 120 (reached by multiplying) makes more sense intuitively than the total of 520 (reached by dividing) that now I'm totally confused if different rules apply when the number is between 0 and 1 and I should indeed be multiplying.

Question 1: if the number for value in columnA is between 0 and 1, do I need to divide or multiply columnB by the value in ColumnA (if I want the sort comparison for all ten rows from greatest to least to make sense)

Part 2: if I do indeed need to multiply for that 1 row (and divide for all 9 others), is there a way in Excel to apply a formula to all 10 rows that takes into account that in one row the operator changes?

Sample Data

        ColumnA ColumnB  Total.
Mike    0.48   175       84       175 * .48  (Or do I still divide?
Bill    1.14    156      136.842  156 / 1.14
Simon   2.02    189      93.56    189 / 2.02
Jim     2.56    112      43.75    112 / 2.56

Answer 1

When you divide you are basically asking the question: what percent is this number of another number? So when you divide 156 by 1.14, you are saying: 156 is 114% of what number? Well its 114% of 136.842. So If that's what you're trying to do, then don't change your formula unless instructed to by a book (if this is for homework) or a mentor to the project.

If you needed to have a condition taken into account (such as if the number was between 0 and 1) then you can use the =if() statement. In this case you would do =if(0