Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Teaching Introductory Statistics: A Graphical Relationship Between The Cumulative Distribution Function And The Probability Distribution Function, Dwight Adamnson, Scott Fausti

Economics Staff Paper Series

Introductory statistics textbooks typically develop the concept of continuous random variables with a discussion of only the variables' probability distribution function and omit any discussion of the cumulative distribution function. The cumulative distribution function, however, is useful in developing the concepts of a normal distribution, the standard normal distribution and the probability of a continuous random variable falls within a specific range of values since the standard normal statistical table is derived from the cumulative distribution function. This paper develops a simple graphical relationship between a continuous random variables' cumulative distribution function and its probability distribution function that can be …