Creating Gaussian Curves to display Normal Distribution


Gaussian curves are widely used in statistics where they describe the normal distributions of your data.  In TIBCO Spotfire version 3.1, we are now able to draw a Gaussian curve.  

Let's assume we have a Bar Chart that acts as a histogram, displaying the count of each value in the Data Table.
 

 

We can then add a 'Gaussian Curve Fit' via the Lines & Curves Properties dialog.

 

 

In the resulting Gaussian Curve Fit Properties dialog, we can manually set the desired Position, Width, and Amplitude, or we can leave it as Automatic, and those values will be calculated based off the data in the plot.



When you are finished with the settings, you will see a Gaussian Curve (Normal Curve) applied in your Bar Chart.

 



 
Other than this, you can also create a normal curve using a custom curve fit, but this also requires additional calculated columns in your Data Table, and then the graph would not show a histogram of your data as above, but rather a distribution based off standard deviations.  This graph, shown below, would make a great details visualization.