Читать книгу Applied Biostatistics for the Health Sciences - Richard J. Rossi - Страница 71

The choice of a probability model for continuous variables is generally based on historical data rather than a particular set of conditions. Just as there are many discrete probability models, there are also many different probability models that can be used to model the distribution of a continuous variable. The most commonly used continuous probability model in statistics is the normal probability model.

The normal probability model is often used to model distributions that are expected to be unimodal and symmetric, and the normal probability model forms the foundation for many of the classical statistical methods used in biostatistics. Moreover, the distribution of many natural phenomena can be modeled very well with the normal distribution. For example, the weights, heights, and IQs of adults are often modeled with normal distributions.

Several properties of a normal distribution are listed below.