Excel 2007 and 2010 Commands Working With the Normal or T-Distribution The formulas below assume either

r a value of interest ( or ) or an area under the distribution ( , a probability). For ease of representation, the mean is denoted , the standard deviation , and an estimated standard deviation, . Recall that of degrees of freedom is denoted . and . For the T-distribution, the number

Excel 2007 commands will work in Excel 2010 the reverse is not true. Excel 2007 Commands Normal Distribution =NORMDIST( ) for a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation , returns , the area under the distribution to the left of some value . =NORMSDIST ( ) for the standard normal distribution returns , the area under the distribution to the left of . =NORMINV( ) for a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation , returns that the area under the distribution to the left of is . =NORMSINV( ) for the standard normal distribution, returns such that the area under the distribution to the left of is . Excel 2010 Commands Normal Distribution =NORM.DIST( ) for a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation , returns , the area under the distribution to the left of some value . =NORM.S.DIST( ) the left of . for the standard normal distribution returns , the area under the distribution to such such

=NORM.INV( ) for a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation , returns that the area under the distribution to the left of is . =NORM.S.INV( ) for the standard normal distribution, returns such that the area under the distribution to the left of is . Excel 2007 T-Distribution

The TDIST command in Excel 2007 gives probabilities in the tails of the distribution instead of cumulative probabilities like NORMDIST, and it is necessary to specify whether the area of interest is a single tail of the distribution or two tails. =TDIST( ) returns the area to the right of t in one tail of the T-distribution with degrees of freedom. The function will only accept positive values for , so if you want the probability in a left tail, say at , you must use =TDIST( ), which gives the same probability. =TDIST( ) freedom. returns the area outside in two tails of the T-distribution with degrees of

=TINV( ) returns for a total area in two tails outside (that is, an area in each tail). If you want the value for a probability of in one tail, you must enter twice the required probability; for example, =TINV(0.10, ) for the value with probability of 0.05 in one tail. Not very convenient! Excel 2010 T-Distribution The T-distribution functions in Excel 2010 are somewhat more flexible. =T.DIST( ) returns , the area under the T-distribution to the left of . Negative values of are permitted. =T.DIST.RT( =T.DIST.2T( =T.INV( =T.INV.2T( ) ) ) returns , the area under the T-distribution to the right of . returns , the area under the T-distribution in the two tails outside .

returns such that the area in the T-distribution to the left of is . ) returns such that the total area outside is .