I've been trying to generate a series of random normal distributions using
the rnorm function. After I generated the first set:
set1<-rnorm(150, 505.5, 15.2)
I checked the mean and standard deviation of set1. I was surprised to find
the mean at 502.37 (rounded) and the standard deviation at 13.3 (again,
rounded). While I know that it is unrealistic to expect the distribution
of the simulated data to match the given mean and standard deviation, I
expected the results to be closer. I then generated 20 more samples. In
no case did the mean exceed 505.5 (the highest value was 504.8). The
standard deviation ranged from a low of 12.4 to a high of 18.
Am I being unrealistic in expecting the results to approximate the given
values of the mean and standard deviation?
==================================================Dr. Marc R. Feldesman
Professor and Chair
Anthropology Department
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon 97207
email: feldesmanm at pdx.edu
http://odin.pdx.edu/~h1mf
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