I'm sorry that you're frustrated in your attempts to use the Formula Editor in JMP.
The first thing to recognize is that JMP isn't a spreadsheet like Excel (neither is Excel a structured data table like JMP).
When you create a new column and give it a formula. The formula applies to the entire column and is evaluated for every row in the column.
If you want to reference a specific row in a column you can use the Subscript option from the Row functions.
This will give you a subscript for the column you've got selected in the formula. You can put a row number in the subscript and you'll get the value for that column in the row specified.
This formula returns the value for ABRASION in row 3 for every row of this new column.
Can you tell us what you're trying to do and how you've tried to do it and we can give you some pointers to accomplish it?
-Jeff
-Jeff