How do I graph normal probability distributions in excel?

[Guest]

To anyone that will listen...I need serious help with excel and graphing. I
am taking statistics, and our instructor wants us to graph normal probability
distributions. I seem to be typing in the wrong information, although I am
not sure how. My book isn't very clear on how to do it, and neither do the
excel tutorials. I need this explained in PLAIN ENGLISH, as I am not overly
familiar with "computer lingo". The problem is: standard deviation=4.7,
mean=21.7 x is numbers 1-10, y is (in order) 25, 19, 17, 15, 20, 24, 30, 19,
16, 23. Please tell me what to type and where to put it in. (I have gotten
as far as going to fx, then "statistical", then NORMDIST. WHAT THEN???
Thank you!

 

[Tushar Mehta]

I am not sure what you are supposed to do. Maybe, check if the data
are normally distributed? If so, see Mike Middleton's
http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/middleton/demand.pdf

If you want to know how to plot a normal distribution curve for a known
mean and average see
Drawing a Normal curve
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/charts/normal_distribution/index.htm

You may also want to check out XL's histogram capability (Tools | Data
Analysis > Histogram)

One last comment. The average of the data 25, 19,...,16, 23 is 20.8
not 21.7

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
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