The Normal Distribution
Statistics - investigating the Normal Distribution and its associated probabilities, its critical regions and its value in statistical tests. You can use it as a calculator for probabilities, percentiles, critical regions, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing.
Instructions below See also: Binomial and Normal Poisson and Normal Central Limit Theorem Confidence Intervals PRINT
This applet is designed to help you understand and investigate the calculation of
probabilities from a Normal distribution. The screen starts with a Standard Normal
distribution ( the variate, X ~ N(0,1) ). You can drag the two red circles to the left and right, to see how the probability (the area under the curve) changes as you move the boundaries. Clicking "Invert" enables you to look at the areas outside the boundaries. Clicking "Reset" returns to the start position.
You can use the boxes at the bottom of the page to vary the mean and standard
deviation of the distribution. Underneath the graph you will then see the new distribution of the variate X, and the probability calculations from that new distribution. Checking the "Symmetric" box at the top constrains the distribution to being symmetric about the mean.
