# 6.3: Using R to Model Properties of a Normal Distribution


Given a mean and a standard deviation, we can use R’s dnorm()function to plot the corresponding normal distribution

dnorm(x, mean, sd)

wheremeanis the value for $$\mu$$,sdis the value for $$\sigma$$, andxis a vector of values that spans the range of x-axis values we want to plot.

# define the mean and the standard deviation

mu = 12 sigma = 2

# create vector for values of x that span a sufficient range of

# standard deviations on either side of the mean; here we use values

# for x that are four standard deviations on either side of the mean

x = seq(4, 20, 0.01)

# use dnorm() to calculate probabilities for each x

y = dnorm(x, mean = mu, sd = sigma)

# plot normal distribution curve

plot(x, y, type = "l", lwd = 2, col = "blue", ylab = "probability", xlab = "x")

To annotate the normal distribution curve to show an area of interest to us, we use R’s polygon() function, as illustrated here for the normal distribution curve in Figure $$\PageIndex{1}$$, showing the area that includes values between 8 and 15.

# define the mean and the standard deviation

mu = 12 sigma = 2

# create vector for values of x that span a sufficient range of

# standard deviations on either side of the mean; here we use values

# for x that are four standard deviations on either side of the mean

x = seq(4, 20, 0.01)

# use dnorm() to calculate probabilities for each x

y = dnorm(x, mean = mu, sd = sigma)

# plot normal distribution curve; the options xaxt = "i" and yaxt = "i"

# force the axes to begin and end at the limits of the data

plot(x, y, type = "l", lwd = 2, col = "ivory4", ylab = "probability", xlab = "x", xaxs = "i", yaxs = "i")

# create vector for values of x between a lower limit of 8 and an upper limit of 15 lowlim = 8

 uplim = 15

dx = seq(lowlim, uplim, 0.01)

# use polygon to fill in area; x and y are vectors of x,y coordinates

# that define the shape that is then filled using the desired color

polygon(x = c(lowlim, dx, uplim), y = c(0, dnorm(dx, mean = 12, sd = 2), 0), border = NA, col = "ivory4")

To find the probability of obtaining a value within the shaded are, we use R’spnorm()command

pnorm(q, mean, sd, lower.tail)

whereqis a limit of interest,meanis the value for $$\mu$$,sdis the value for $$\sigma$$, andlower.tailis a logical value that indicates whether we return the probability for values below the limit (lower.tail = TRUE) or for values above the limit (lower.tail = FALSE). For example, to find the probability of obtaining a result between 8 and 15, given $$\mu = 12$$ and $$\sigma = 2$$, we use the following lines of code.

# find probability of obtaining a result greater than 15

prob_greater15 = pnorm(15, mean = 12, sd = 2, lower.tail = FALSE)

# find probability of obtaining a result less than 8

prob_less8 = pnorm(8, mean = 12, sd = 2, lower.tail = TRUE)

# find probability of obtaining a result between 8 and 15

prob_between = 1 - prob_greater15 - prob_less8 # display results

prob_greater15

[1] 0.0668072

prob_less8

[1] 0.02275013

prob_between

[1] 0.9104427

Thus, 91.04% of values fall between the limits of 8 and 15.

This page titled 6.3: Using R to Model Properties of a Normal Distribution is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Harvey.