The Normal Distribution

The normal distribution is a concept most people have some familiarity with, even if they have never heard the term. A more familiar name for the normal distribution is the bell curve , because a normal distribution forms the shape of a bell. The normal distribution is extremely important in statistics and has some specific characteristics that make it so useful. In this chapter, I briefly describe what a normal distribution is and why it is so important to researchers. Then I discuss some of the features of the normal distribution, and of sampling, in more depth.