Calculating Probability in a Binomial Distribution in Excel

This worksheet demonstrates examples of using Excel functions to find a binomial

distribution based on a specific dataset.

A binomial distribution is one resulting from independent trials where exactly two
outcomes are possible and where the probability of success in any one outcome is
constant across trials. Excel calculates the probability of a desired number of
successes (or failures) in given number of trials easily by using the BINOMDIST
function.
The BINOMDIST formula consists of four fields and looks like this:
[BINOMDIST(number_s,trials,probability_s,cumulative)].
Number_s is the number of successes in trials.
Trials is the number of independent trials.
Number_s and trials are truncated to integers.
Probability is the probability of success on in any individual trial. As you may recall
from the first law of probability, a probability must be between 0 and 1 or P(0 x 1).

If number_s, trials or probability_s is nonnumeric, BINOMDIST returns the

#VALUE! error value.
If number_s < 0 or number_s > trials, BINOMDIST returns the #NUM! error
value.
If probability_s < 0 or probability_s > 1, BINOMDIST returns the #NUM!
error value.
Cumulative is a logical value that determines the form of the function. If cumulative is
TRUE, then BINOMDIST returns the cumulative distribution function, which is the
probability that there are up to number_s successes; if FALSE, it returns the probability
mass function, which is the probability that exactly number_s successes are possible.

Follow these steps to calculate binomial distribution in Excel:

Consider the following example of the flip of a fair coin. First, find the probability of the
coin landing on heads 8 times in 10 flips. For this problem, you must set "Cumulative"
equal to False. Most of the problems in this course will require you to determine the
probability of a desired number of successes in a given number of trials and will require
that you set "Cumulative" equal to False.

1) Click an output cell for the solution. (Use J54 for this example.)
2) Click the function button (fx), select All in the left pane to display all Excel functions,
and double-click BINOMDIST in the right pane.
3) A dialog box appears and asks what dataset to use. Enter the cell ID for the first data
item in the "Number_s" box.
4) Enter the cell IDs for "Trials," "Probability_s," and "Cumulative," and then click OK.
5) Excel calculates the binomial distribution and displays the answer in the output cell.
(The answer for this example is .0439.)
Note: Be sure to format the output cell as a "number" with at least two decimal places
(four decimal places were used for this example). To do this, click in the cell, and then
right-click to get a menu of choices. Click on "Format Cells" to open the formatting
dialog box, and then click on the Number tab.
6) Next, find the cumulative probability of a coin landing on heads 8 times in 10 flips. For
this problem, you must set "Cumulative" equal to True. In other words, you are finding
the probability that there are up to 8 heads in 10 flips.
Repeat Steps 1-5 with Dataset 2. (The answer for Dataset 2 is .9893.)
Dataset 2
8
10
0.50
1
0.9893
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Dataset 1
8
10
0.50
0
0.0439