The Normal
Probability Distributions

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  1. Read the Hyperstats unit on the Normal Distirbutions

  2. This short article will help you understand that the Normal curves form a "family" of similar distributions.

  3. Spend a few minutes on this applet to understand that normal curves are determined by just two parameters
  4. This link has MC questions about the Normal Distribution

  5. Calculating areas under the Normal curve on your Ti-83+, Select Normal Distribution under the alphabetical list at right.
  6. Using The calculator in Stat Crunch. This short paper explains how to use the calculator in stat crunch to find the areas under normal curves.
  7. Read this short paper. It is not in your text and covers how to find means and std deviations when new distributions are formed by combining two or more others.
  8. The Normal curve is sometimes called a Gaussian Distribution after Karl Gauss. See why at my Mathwords web site.
  9. The first person to apply the normal distribution to social data was Adolph Quetelet (1796-1874). (see a poster here) He collected data on the chest measurements of Scottish soldiers, and the heights of French soldiers, and found that they were normally distributed. His conclusion was that the mean was nature's ideal, and data on either side of the mean were a deviation from nature's ideal. The Body Mass Index we studied earlier in the year was also created by Qutelet, and is often called the Quetelet index

    You can also find the Scottish Soldiers data at StatCrunch. (click on "my data" )

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A glossary of Statistical Terms from SticiGui
Hyper-Stats Glossary