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Normal Distribution -- from Wolfram MathWorld

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Seth J. Chandler Probability and Statistics > Statistical Distributions > Continuous Distributions > History and Terminology > Mathematica Commands > Interactive Entries > Interactive Demonstrations >

Normal Distribution

THINGS TO TRY: normal distribution normal distribution table plot normal distribution sigma=1 mu=0

A normal distribution in a variate function

with mean

and variance

is a statistic distribution with probability density

(1)

Joint Density of Bivariate Gaussian Random Variables

John M. Shea

on the domain . While statisticians and mathematicians uniformly use the term "normal distribution" for this distribution, physicists sometimes call it a Gaussian distribution and, because of its curved flaring shape, social scientists refer to it as the "bell curve." Feller (1968) uses the symbol for in the above equation, but then switches to in Feller (1971). de Moivre developed the normal distribution as an approximation to the binomial distribution, and it was subsequently used by Laplace in 1783 to study measurement errors and by Gauss in 1809 in the analysis of astronomical data (Havil 2003, p. 157). The normal distribution is implemented in Mathematica as N r a D s r b t o [mu, sigma]. omlitiuin The so-called "standard normal distribution" is given by taking and in a general normal distribution. An arbitrary normal distribution can be converted to a standard normal distribution by changing variables to , so , yielding (2)

Com paring Norm al and Student's tDistributions

Gary McClelland

The Norm al Distribution

Gary H. McClelland

Wolfram Web Resources

13,109 entries Last updated: Thu Apr 26 2012

Created, developed, and nurtured by Eric Weisstein at Wolfram Research

The Fisher-Behrens problem is the determination of a test for the equality of means for two normal distributions with different variances. The normal distribution function interval , gives the probability that a standard normal variate assumes a value in the

(3) (4)

where erf is a function sometimes called the error function. Neither nor erf can be expressed in terms of finite additions, subtractions, multiplications, and root extractions, and so both must be either computed numerically or otherwise approximated.

The normal distribution is the limiting case of a discrete binomial distribution becomes large, in which case is normal with mean and variance

as the sample size

(5) (6) with . is properly normalized since (7)

The distribution

The cumulative distribution function, which gives the probability that a variate will assume a value integral of the normal distribution,

, is then the (8)

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Normal Distribution -- from Wolfram MathWorld

(8) (9) (10)

where erf is the so-called error function. Normal distributions have many convenient properties, so random variates with unknown distributions are often assumed to be normal, especially in physics and astronomy. Although this can be a dangerous assumption, it is often a good approximation due to a surprising result known as the central limit theorem. This theorem states that the mean of any set of variates with any distribution having a finite mean and variance tends to the normal distribution. Many common attributes such as test scores, height, etc., follow roughly normal distributions, with few members at the high and low ends and many in the middle. Because they occur so frequently, there is an unfortunate tendency to invoke normal distributions in situations where they may not be applicable. As Lippmann stated, "Everybody believes in the exponential law of errors: the experimenters, because they think it can be proved by mathematics; and the mathematicians, because they believe it has been established by observation" (Whittaker and Robinson 1967, p. 179). Among the amazing properties of the normal distribution are that the normal sum distribution and normal difference distribution obtained by respectively adding and subtracting variates and from two independent normal distributions with arbitrary means and variances are also normal! The normal ratio distribution obtained from has a Cauchy distribution. Using the k-statistic formalism, the unbiased estimator for the variance of a normal distribution is given by (11)

where (12)

so (13)

The characteristic function for the normal distribution is (14) and the moment-generating function is (15) (16) (17) so (18) (19) and (20) (21) These can also be computed using (22) (23) (24) yielding, as before, (25) (26) The raw moments can also be computed directly by computing the raw moments , (27)

(Papoulis 1984, pp. 147-148). Now let (28) (29)

(30) giving the raw moments in terms of Gaussian integrals, (31)

Evaluating these integrals gives

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Normal Distribution -- from Wolfram MathWorld

(32) (33) (34) (35) (36) Now find the central moments, (37) (38) (39) (40) The variance, skewness, and kurtosis excess are given by (41) (42) (43) The cumulant-generating function for a normal distribution is (44) (45) so (46) (47) (48) For normal variates, for , so the variance of k-statistic is (49) (50)

Also, (51) (52) (53)

where (54) (55)

The variance of the sample variance

for a general distribution is given by (56)

which simplifies in the case of a normal distribution to (57)

(Kenney and Keeping 1951, p. 164). If is a normal distribution, then (58)

so variates

with a normal distribution can be generated from variates

having a uniform distribution in (0,1) via (59)

However, a simpler way to obtain numbers with a normal distribution is to use the Box-Muller transformation. The differential equation having a normal distribution as its solution is (60)

since (61) (62) (63) This equation has been generalized to yield more complicated distributions which are named using the so-called Pearson system.

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Pearson system.

Normal Distribution -- from Wolfram MathWorld

The normal distribution is also a special case of the chi-squared distribution, since making the substitution (64)

gives (65) (66)

Now, the real line is mapped onto the half-infinite interval extra factor of 2 must be added to , transforming into

by this transformation, so an

(67) (68)

(Kenney and Keeping 1951, p. 98), where use has been made of the identity chi-squared distribution in with (and also a gamma distribution with and

. As promised, (68) is a ).

SEE ALSO:

Binomial Distribution, Bivariate Normal Distribution, Box-Muller Transformation, Central Limit Theorem, Erf, Error Function Distribution, Fisher-Behrens Problem, Galton Board, Gaussian Function, Half-Normal Distribution, Inverse Gaussian Distribution, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, Logit Transformation, Normal Deviate, Normal Distribution Function, Normal Product Distribution, Normal Ratio Distribution, Normal Sum Distribution, Pearson System, Ratio Distribution, Standard Normal Distribution, Tetrachoric Function, z-Score
REFERENCES: Beyer, W. H. CRC Standard Mathematical Tables, 28th ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp. 533-534, 1987. Feller, W. An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Vol. 1, 3rd ed. New York: Wiley, 1968. Feller, W. An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Vol. 2, 3rd ed. New York: Wiley, p. 45, 1971. Havil, J. Gamma: Exploring Euler's Constant. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 157, 2003. Kenney, J. F. and Keeping, E. S. Mathematics of Statistics, Pt. 2, 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1951. Kraitchik, M. "The Error Curve." 6.4 in Mathematical Recreations. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 121-123, 1942. Papoulis, A. Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw -Hill, pp. 100-101, 1984. Patel, J. K. and Read, C. B. Handbook of the Normal Distribution. New York: Dekker, 1982. Spiegel, M. R. Theory and Problems of Probability and Statistics. New York: McGraw -Hill, pp. 109-111, 1992. Steinhaus, H. Mathematical Snapshots, 3rd ed. New York: Dover, pp. 285-290, 1999. Whittaker, E. T. and Robinson, G. "Normal Frequency Distribution." Ch. 8 in The Calculus of Observations: A Treatise on Numerical Mathematics, 4th ed. New York: Dover, pp. 164-208, 1967.

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CITE THIS AS: Weisstein, Eric W. "Normal Distribution." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathw orld.w olfram.com/NormalDistribution.html

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