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Hey guys, I'm writing a program to display a histogram of 1000 Gaussian distributed numbers. I've generated the numbers using rand and now need to transform them. I have found the following formula to use
f(x) = exp(-x^2 / (2*sigma^2)) / sqrt(2*pi*sigma)
and I am unsure how to implement this into a function.
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.
The values returned by rand() typically approximate a uniform distribution. (Although the quality of implementation varies between libraries).
Google for techniques to convert a uniform distribution to a gaussian distribution. You will find plenty of information. It is not as simple as simply plugging in the formula you showed (which is the distribution function for a gaussian).
I've come across the Box-Muller method, and it seems like the best way to do it, but to be honest, i'm not really sure how to apply that. A general over view of the process would help greatly.
First link to google with the string "box-muller" is this.
True, it doesn't provide code, but if your want to use the Box-Muller transform, the information is there. The mathematics is pretty simple.