# A normal random variable from a random number generator

**URL:** <https://mworks.discourse.group/t/a-normal-random-variable-from-a-random-number-generator/209>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 7, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/a-normal-random-variable-from-a-random-number-generator/209 "2020-01-07T17:39:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/a-normal-random-variable-from-a-random-number-generator/209/1 "2020-01-07T17:39:49Z")

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Hello  
I need to set variable intervals to display visual stimuli and want these intervals to have a normal distribution. Is there a method to approximate a normal distributed sampler using ‘rand’ or one of the other existing random number generators?

Thank you very much!  
Marisol

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/a-normal-random-variable-from-a-random-number-generator/209/2 "2020-01-07T21:03:19Z")

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Hi Marisol,

Probably the easiest thing would be to use Python’s [random module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/random.html) via a [Python action](https://mworks.github.io/documentation/latest/components/run_python_file.html), e.g.

```
run_python_string ('import random')
value = py_call('random.gauss', mean, std_dev)

```

Cheers,  
Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/a-normal-random-variable-from-a-random-number-generator/209/3 "2020-01-13T23:58:29Z")

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Hey Chris!

Thank you very much! it works pretty nice!

Marisol

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/a-normal-random-variable-from-a-random-number-generator/209/4 "2022-07-19T20:37:10Z")

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Closed on July 19, 2022, 8:37pm UTC