AI engineering glossary · Probability
What is normal distribution?
Normal distribution (also called Gaussian distribution): A symmetric, bell-shaped distribution fully described by its mean and standard deviation. About 68%, 95% and 99.7% of values lie within one, two and three standard deviations of the mean. It appears everywhere because sums of many small effects tend to look like it.
Normal distribution: an example
Heights of adult men in a city might be normal with mean 170 cm and standard deviation 7 cm, so about 95% fall between 156 and 184 cm.
Related terms
More Probability terms
- Outcome
- Partition
- Percentile
- Permutation
- Poisson distribution
- Poisson process
- Population
- Posterior probability
Where you learn it
Normal distribution is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.