i have a spreadsheet with results of a 5k race, 950 finishers.
i am trying to make a bell curve chart that shows the rate at which
finishers come in;
i changed the time to a decimal by using the formula "=(C2-INT(C2))*24"
that helped, and i now have a valid line chart
i trying to show that the majority of finishers are between 8 - 11 minutes,
some before and lots after.
any ideas on this?

jackeen -

I suggest that you consider using a histogram, i.e., a column chart of a
frequency distribution. (The histogram may or may not have a bell shape,
depending on your data.) Here are three approaches:

(a) Excel's Analysis ToolPak has a Histogram tool.
(b) My free Better Histogram add-in is available at www.treeplan.com.
(c) Excel's array-entered FREQUENCY function can create a frequency
distribution from which you can construct a Column chart type.

- Mike
http://www.MikeMiddleton.com


"jackeen" wrote in message
...
i have a spreadsheet with results of a 5k race, 950 finishers.
i am trying to make a bell curve chart that shows the rate at which
finishers come in;
i changed the time to a decimal by using the formula "=(C2-INT(C2))*24"
that helped, and i now have a valid line chart
i trying to show that the majority of finishers are between 8 - 11
minutes,
some before and lots after.
any ideas on this?

Excel 2007
Here is Mike's plan (a)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/amyf2xj0t21/12_05_09.xlsx