# How to use the 'ball distribute gauss ..' command correctly?

**URL:** <https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/how-to-use-the-ball-distribute-gauss-command-correctly/933>\
**Category:** PFC\
**Tags:** fish, suggestions, faq\
**Created:** [February 21, 2023, 5:53am UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/how-to-use-the-ball-distribute-gauss-command-correctly/933 "2023-02-21T05:53:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pprasad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19b73/32.png) [@pprasad](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/pprasad)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 5:53am UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/how-to-use-the-ball-distribute-gauss-command-correctly/933/1 "2023-02-21T05:53:53Z")

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I’m trying to use the `ball distribute` command with the `gauss` keyword, and I’m planning to provide two arguments for the mean and standard deviation of the gauss function. However, it appears that the ‘gauss’ keyword is only accepting a single argument, resulting in the distribution of monodisperse balls. Could you please advise me on the proper usage of this command to specify either the mean and standard deviation or minimum and maximum ball radii values?

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**Author:** ![dblanksma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@dblanksma](https://forum.itascainternational.com/u/dblanksma)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://forum.itascainternational.com/t/how-to-use-the-ball-distribute-gauss-command-correctly/933/2 "2023-02-21T19:45:39Z")

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Hello @pprasad,

The **guass** keyword only takes one optional argument. If the **guass** keyword is given with the `ball distribute bin` … command, then the distribution is assigned based on the high and low values of the given radii. More information on this command is given [here](https://docs.itascacg.com/pfc700/pfc/pfcmodule/doc/manual/ball_manual/ball_commands/cmd_ball.distribute.html?node2013#kwd:ball.distribute.bin).