Creating Random Numbers that Follow a Normal Distribution Using Excel

This video demonstrates how to produce random numbers that are normally distributed using Excel. Tests of normality, including the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test and Shapiro-Wilk Test, are demonstrated using SPSS.

[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.

[aliciazahn]

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.

[brittanyvodzak]

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.

[jazzynovy]

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.

[jacklinskibicki]

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.

[ariadnaaguero-roman]

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

[mandabear]

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.

[thecorgisquad]

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.

[kyarapanula]

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

[Mjthfdj]

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

[kimberlykelly]

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.

[reneemendez]

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.

[runner]

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.

[katherinebeck]

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.

[brijeshdhiman]

@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

[scottmartin]

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.

[rachelfoster]

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?

[danielleduboski]

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

[angelomonzon]

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