Generating random numbers from other distributions

You can generate random numbers from a variety of statistical distributions in addition to the uniform distribution. Unfortunately, it takes a sneaky trick!

First, you generate a uniform random number between 0 and 1 using RAND(). Then you apply the inverse cumulative distribution function for the distribution you are interested in. Don't worry, it sounds trickier than it is.

As an example, to generate random numbers from a normal distribution with mean 3 and standard deviation 2, you would use =NORMINV(RAND(), 3, 2).

There are many other inverse cumulative distribution functions available: you can repeat that same code swapping FINV() for the F distribution, BETAINV() for the beta distribution, and so on.