Statistical Probability

[Legacy 352679]

Hey everyone,

It's been a long time since I've done any statistics and I'm floundering a little bit with only one set of values.

I was hoping someone could help guide me with a formula in excel.

I have wave height data for the months of Jan - Dec, for 1980-2019. I have organised all this data purely by month, so every day of every year for January is lumped together, February lumped together etc.

My spreadsheet looks like this, for example:
Jan Feb Mar
12. 25. 50.
10. 5. 19.
More data/numbers etc.

I'm only interested in months and not separating the data by any other means.

What I would like to achieve is 'what is the probability that the wave height for January will exceed X metres' and so on for each month.

I'm hoping this is simple and someone can just jog my brain. Thank you.

 

[DRSteele]

Let's see. This formula will do what you want.

=1-NORM.DIST(hurdle,mean,stdev,1)

So for the January column, you need to calculate the mean and the standard deviation and then enter a value for the hurdle. The formula will report the probability that the wave height for Jan will exceed your hurdle.

We can all benefit from watching instructional videos from ExcelIsFun on youtube, and I think this might help you along the way.

This entire playlist will re-boot your nascent knowledge about statistics. And this one in particular will discuss probabilities and hurdles.

 

[Legacy 352679]

Thank you for that, and thank you for providing the link, I'll definitely have to suss it out for any future dramas or mind blanks!