R Academy · Lesson

Generating Random Distributions

Sample from normal, uniform, binomial, and Poisson distributions.

R's Distribution Functions

R provides four functions for each distribution: r (random), d (density), p (cumulative probability), q (quantile). The r* functions generate random samples.

# Pattern: r<dist>(n, param1, param2, ...)
# d<dist>(x, ...) -> density/probability
# p<dist>(q, ...) -> cumulative probability
# q<dist>(p, ...) -> quantile

# Example with normal distribution:
rnorm(5, mean = 0, sd = 1)    # 5 random draws
dnorm(0, mean = 0, sd = 1)    # density at x=0
pnorm(1.96, mean = 0, sd = 1) # P(X <= 1.96)
qnorm(0.975, mean = 0, sd = 1) # z-score for 97.5%
cat('Four functions: r, d, p, q for each distribution')

rnorm(): Normal Distribution

rnorm(n, mean, sd) generates n samples from N(mean, sd²). The default is the standard normal N(0,1). The normal distribution is the workhorse of statistics — central limit theorem guarantees its prevalence.

set.seed(42)
# Standard normal (mean=0, sd=1)
z_scores <- rnorm(1000)
mean(z_scores)  # ~0
sd(z_scores)    # ~1

# Custom normal (IQ scores: mean=100, sd=15)
set.seed(42)
iq_scores <- rnorm(100, mean = 100, sd = 15)
mean(iq_scores)  # ~100
sd(iq_scores)    # ~15
summary(iq_scores)

# About 68% within 1 sd
mean(abs(iq_scores - 100) < 15)  # ~0.68

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