NORMSDIST

NORMSDIST is a function commonly found in spreadsheet software and statistical programming languages. It calculates the standard normal cumulative distribution function. The standard normal distribution is a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. The NORMSDIST function takes a single argument, a value (often denoted as z), which represents a point on the standard normal distribution.

The function returns the probability that a randomly selected value from this standard normal distribution will be less than or equal to the provided z-score. In essence, it gives you the area under the standard normal curve to the left of that specific z-value. This is useful for determining probabilities, comparing values from different distributions, and performing statistical hypothesis testing. For example, if you want to know the probability of obtaining a value less than 1.96 in a standard normal distribution, you would input 1.96 into the NORMSDIST function. The output would represent this specific cumulative probability.