In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Stan Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> in sci.stat.math, K L ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>I have a normal distribution with mean = 50 and standard deviation = 5 >>I want to divide this distribution into two separate normal distributions >>each with mean = 25 so that when I add them I will get my original >>distribution.
>This makes no sense. When you combine two distributions, the mean of >the combined distribution must be between the means of the separate >distributions: > MU = (MU1*N1 + MU2*N2) / (N1 + N2) >Therefore if the mean of the big distribution is 50, it _can't_ be >split into two distributions whose means are both 25. If the original poster means the distribution of the sum of the two independent random variables, it does work; if both variables are normal, the sum is normal. The mixture of two distributions can be normal, but not the mixture of two different normal distributions. -- This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558 . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
