Is the data "normally" distributed?

Let's revisit the savings data. Earlier, you noted that the mean and median savings values were almost equal. The savings histogram was also roughly symmetrical and resembled a bell curve.

Now you want to use statistics to verify if the distribution is approximately symmetrical or "normally distributed". To do so, you will calculate the skew and kurtosis.

  • Kurtosis: Calculated using KURT(). Measures how the tails behave. It identifies how values are concentrated around the mean and how they trail away from it in the tails.
  • Skew: Calculated using SKEW(). Measures how symmetrical the distribution is. 0 means the distribution is exactly symmetrical. Values above or below 0 indicate that there are more values above or below the mean.

This exercise is part of the course

Introduction to Statistics in Google Sheets

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Exercise instructions

  • In cells F5 and F6, calculate the skew and kurtosis of the savings data.

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