Creating Random Numbers that Follow a Normal Distribution Using Excel

[@fredhasopinions]

I’ve been watching your videos about serial killers for a bit and never expected to find your channel on accident when looking for help with my statistics coursework. Thanks for helping a maths student out.

[@aliciazahn1718]

I think it's great that Dr. Grande showed how to test to see if the numbers were normally distributed. It shows not to just take this at face value because the second variable is not clearly normally distributed. The histograms were really helpful in understanding tests of normality.

[@runner000777]

+Alicia Zahn Yes agreed!

[@rachelfoster5463]

+Alicia Zahn That is a great point. We may come across the work or research of others, and we cannot always trust the calculations that they have come up with or presented to us.

[@brittanyvodzak9198]

I liked how this video showed that the significance can be different depending on the different tests you can use. I also liked how this video went step by step; it made it easy for me to follow and understand.

[@jazzynovy5400]

I liked how this video was easy to follow and showed how the normal and skewed curves are compared. I am a visual person and this was a very helpful video to bring it all together.

[@jacklinskibicki6098]

The random number generation function was fairly easy to understand and follow, so this video made me feel more comfortable using excel. I also found it interesting to learn that you can utilize functions in excel in conjunction with SPSS.

[@CandyKaneLane]

I appreciate the use of visuals in the video, it really helps me to better understand the process of creating random numbers that follow a normal distribution.

[@jacklinskibicki6098]

+Candace Fernandez I find viewing each step helpful as well. It helps to see each of the functions that are involved.

[@jazzynovy5400]

+Candace Fernandez I agree Candace. Seeing it in the video makes the steps much less confusing when attempting to replicate the functions.

[@ariadnaaguero-roman5525]

This is good refresher from the research class. The histogram displays whether its a normal distribution or whether its a skewed curve.

[@kimberlykelly386]

Great, easy to follow video. It reminded me that a non-significant result indicates a normally distributed variable (so any results greater than alpha 0.05). This also showed how significance can vary depending on which test you use to interpret the data. It's helpful to view the histograms to visualize any skewness. The closer the skewness is to 0, the more normally distributed it is.

[@runner000777]

This was interesting to see how random numbers can be normally distributed in excel. I honestly think that excel is a great tool. I do not know much about SPSS but would like to learn.

[@thecorgisquad9861]

I like this feature in Excel. It is very straightforward and easy to understand. It is slightly more convoluted in SPSS, but still somewhat graspable.

[@mandabear52289]

i had forgotten about the feature on SPSS to show the normal distrubution on the histrogram. I found this video to be a helpful reminder to me on how to read those SPSS outputs.

[@brittanyvodzak9198]

+Mandy Moore It has been a long time since I have had access to SPSS, so I had forgotten about some things. I agree this video was a nice reminder on how to read the outputs.

[@reneemendez4287]

Having known Excel a lot longer than SPSS I understood the Excel portion of this video more than the SPSS version. However it was good to see how each program works. What I didn't understand was the purpose.

[@kyarapanula1002]

This process is an excellent demonstration of using random numbers for the Central Limit Theorem.

[@heather7927]

I agree, this was a nice step by step instruction. I like how Dr. Grande goes through each step which makes it easy to follow along and to use this functioning.

[@katherinebeck593]

I don't know much about SPSS but I would like to learn more about statistics and the tools. But it was cool to see how random numbers can be normally distributed.

[@rachelfoster5463]

I was glad that Dr. Grande showed how to compare the histograms to a normal curve to see the difference between a normal curve and a skewed curve. I understood that much better when I had the visual to compare it to. I just wonder why you would need to create random numbers that follow a normal distribution. I may have missed that in the video, but what would these numbers be used for?

[@reneemendez4287]

+Rachel Foster I didn't understand the purpose as well. I got how to do it, but not why.

[@kimberlykelly386]

+Rachel Foster I thought the exact same thing. It was helpful to see how this data appears in graphically but not sure when/why you would choose to run random numbers other than for educational purposes/practice using the programs.

[@Mjthfdj]

Being familiar with Excel this video was easy to follow and helpful in terms of understanding normal and skewed curves.

[@michellerobinson968]

This video was easy to follow but there are numerous steps to producing random numbers. When testing of normality the video used KS test and Shapiro-Wilk test and there are certain circumstances in which one test is more appropriate to use than the other. DrGrande did not discuss further but stated the Shapiro-Wilk test is primarily used.

[@aliciazahn1718]

+Michelle Robinson I'm glad all of the tests were shown so that we had a chance to see the differences, and like you mentioned, get to know that there are varying circumstances under which one is better than the other. Although that wasn't discussed further, it helps to realize more than one test is the best choice.

[@scottmartin7764]

I thought this video was very good and easy to follow, I also found it very interesting how the video showed how the normal and skewed curves are compared.

[@danielleduboski151]

I really like that with excel the numerical data can be shown visual with scales and graphs.

[@dr.shawboss]

thank you so much Doctor

[@melissaclendaniel9811]

This video made sense when I was watching it but I think that I will revisit this concept to make sure I understand the purpose of how and when to utilize this.

[@bethanyelstrom3566]

+Melissa Clendaniel Having no experience with SPSS it was difficult to understand the output results that were displayed. I can see the benefits of having a diagram that shows the curves of standard deviation, but I'm not sure I could accomplish this on my own after watching the video.

[@michellerobinson968]

+Bethany Elstrom I agree it was difficult to grasp and understand. I would need to watch video again in order to accomplish this too on my own.

[@angelomonzon432]

Hi Todd! thanks for the awesome video. Is there any way to generate a random set of numbers that equal to a certain average? Say 30 random numbers that equal to an average of 3,000

[@hasanberkemsonder8162]

so let's say I want to consider a petrol station, and generate a randomly distributed arrival time of total total vehicles in one day. How do I do that?

[@vanessasiqueira4002]

Hi,It is possible generating random variables in excel from truncated normal distribution?

[@dr.s.shahulhameed3339]

Nice. but, can we fix the randbetween.? i.e. Here the random number generate without lower limit and upper limit. can we set the range?

[@maxresdefault3691]

when I go to add ins I see analysis tool pak but it is inactive and when I select it and click OK nothing happens.

[@sherrieyoung3275]

So I take from this video that this function will generate a random number that falls within a normal distribution based on a starting Mean and Standard Deviation

[@mahmoudfaouzichaoubi5855]

Thank you =شُكراً

[@brijeshdhiman3364]

@1:11 Data analysis window is not appearing in my excel sheet. I'm using excel 2016. Please let me know how to add data analysis tool

[@alexanderpattiasina4837]

WOW U HELP MY LIFE BRO!!!!! GBU SO MUCH !!!!!!!!!!

[@carolkirby5869]

I am sure it's just an issue of familiarity but I am far more comfortable with manipulating data in Excel than SPSS.

[@rosasutton8472]

I think you are right. I have much more experience with Excel than SPSS, so there is that certain level of comfort and familiarity in terms of data manipulation.

[@tammywitzke6642]

I agree, SPSS seems to be somewhat more difficult for me to understand.

[@michelemunday261]

So true, I am not at all familiar with SPSS.

[@bethanyelstrom3566]

Since I have never seen SPSS before I found this information difficult to follow once the data was copied into SPSS. I could follow the steps in Excel pretty easy, but then I was lost. Interpreting all the data in the histograms and plots was confusing.

[@mandabear52289]

SPSS is defineitly confusing until you 've used it yourself. Yes, interpurting those plots is tricky!

[@kimberlykelly386]

Great, easy to follow video. It reminded me that a non-significant result indicates a normally distributed variable (so any results greater than alpha 0.05). This also showed how significance can vary depending on which test you use to interpret the data. It's helpful to view the histograms to visualize any skewness. The closer the skewness is to 0, the more normally distributed it is.