Elementary Statistics
Larson Farber
Section 5.1
Introduction to
Normal
Distributions
Properties of a Normal Distribution
x
• The mean, median, and mode are equal
• The total area that lies under the curve is one or 100%
Properties of a Normal Distribution
x
• As the curve extends farther and farther away from the
mean, it gets closer and closer to the x-axis but never
touches it.
• The points at which the curvature changes are called
inflection points. The graph curves downward between the
inflection points and curves upward past the inflection
points to the left and to the right.
Means and Standard Deviations
Curves with different means, same standard deviation
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Curves with different means, different standard deviations
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Empirical Rule
x
3.3 3.6 3.9 4.2 4.5 4.8 5.1
An instruction manual claims that the assembly time for a
product is normally distributed with a mean of 4.2 hours
and standard deviation 0.3 hour. Determine the
interval in which 95% of the assembly times fall.
95% of the data will fall within 2 standard deviations of the mean.
4.2 – 2 (0.3) = 3.6 and 4.2 + 2 (0.3) = 4.8.
95% of the assembly times will be between 3.6 and 4.8 hrs.
Section 5.2
The Standard
Normal
Distribution
The Standard Score
The standard score, or z-score, represents the number of
standard deviations a random variable x falls from the
mean.
–4 –3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 4 z
Cumulative Areas
The
total
area
under
the curve
is one.
–3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 z
• The cumulative area is close to 0 for z-scores close
to –3.49.
• The cumulative area for z = 0 is 0.5000.
0.1056
–3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 z
Read down the z column on the left to z = –1.25 and across to
the column under .05. The value in the cell is 0.1056, the
cumulative area.
The probability that z is at most –1.25 is 0.1056.
Finding Probabilities
To find the probability that z is less than a given value,
read the cumulative area in the table corresponding to
that z-score.
–3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 z
Read down the z-column to –1.4 and across to .05. The
cumulative area is 0.0735.
Finding Probabilities
To find the probability that z is greater than a given
value, subtract the cumulative area in the table
from 1.
Find P(z > –1.24).
0.1075
0.8925
–3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 z
The cumulative area (area to the left) is 0.1075. So the area
to the right is 1 – 0.1075 = 0.8925.
P(z > –1.24) = 0.8925
Finding Probabilities
To find the probability z is between two given values, find the
cumulative areas for each and subtract the smaller area from
the larger.
–3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 z
1. P(z < 1.17) = 0.8790 2. P(z < –1.25) = 0.1056
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 z
To find the probability is greater
than a given value, subtract the
cumulative area in the table from 1.
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 z
To find the probability z is
between two given values, find the
cumulative areas for each and
subtract the smaller area from the
larger.
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 z
Section 5.3
Normal
Distributions
Finding
Probabilities
Probabilities and Normal Distributions
If a random variable, x is normally distributed, the
probability that x will fall within an interval is equal to the
area under the curve in the interval.
IQ scores are normally distributed with a mean of 100
and a standard deviation of 15. Find the probability that a
person selected at random will have an IQ score less
than 115.
100 115
To find the area in this interval, first find the standard
score equivalent to x = 115.
Probabilities and Normal Distributions
Normal Distribution
SAME
Distribution
SAME
Normal
Distributions
Finding Values
From Areas to z-Scores
Find the z-score corresponding to a cumulative area of 0.9803.
z = 2.06 corresponds
roughly to the
98th percentile.
0.9803
–4 –3 –2 –1 0 1 2 3 4
z
Locate 0.9803 in the area portion of the table. Read the
values at the beginning of the corresponding row and at
the top of the column. The z-score is 2.06.
Finding z-Scores from Areas
Find the z-score corresponding to the 90th percentile.
.90
0 z
The closest table area is .8997. The row heading is
1.2 and column heading is .08. This corresponds to
z = 1.28.
.40
.60
0 z
z
With .60 to the right, cumulative area is .
40. The closest area is .4013. The row
heading is 0.2 and column heading is .05.
The z-score is 0.25.
A z-score of 0.25 has an area of .60 to its right.
It also corresponds to the 40th percentile
Finding z-Scores from Areas
Find the z-score such that 45% of the area under the
curve falls between –z and z.
.275 .275
.45
–z 0 z
The area remaining in the tails is .55. Half this area is
in each tail, so since .55/2 = .275 is the cumulative area
for the negative z value and .275 + .45 = .725 is the
cumulative area for the positive z. The closest table
area is .2743 and the z-score is 0.60. The positive z
score is 0.60.
From z-Scores to Raw Scores
To find the data value, x when given a standard score, z:
z
Find the cumulative area in the table that is closest to
0.9000 (the 90th percentile.) The area 0.8997 corresponds
to a z-score of 1.28.
To find the corresponding x-value, use
x
the distribution of means of sample size n, will be normal
with a mean
standard deviation
Application
The mean height of American men (ages 20-29) is
inches. Random samples of 60 such men are selected. Find the mean and
standard deviation (standard error) of the sampling distribution.
69.2 mean
Distribution of means of sample size 60,
will be normal.
Standard deviation
Interpreting the Central Limit Theorem
The mean height of American men (ages 20-29) is =
69.2”. If a random sample of 60 men in this age group
is selected, what is the probability the mean height for
the sample is greater than 70”? Assume the standard
deviation is 2.9”.
Since n > 30 the sampling distribution of will be normal
mean
standard deviation
Find the z-score for a sample mean of 70:
Interpreting the Central Limit Theorem
z 2.14
standard deviation
Normal
Approximation to
the Binomial
Binomial Distribution Characteristics
n=5
p = 0.25, q = .75
0 1 2 3 4 5
np =1.25 nq = 3.75
n = 20
p = 0.25
np = 5 nq = 15
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
n = 50
p = 0.25
np = 12.5
nq = 37.5
0 10 20 30 40 50
Binomial Probabilities
The binomial distribution is discrete with a probability
histogram graph. The probability that a specific value of
x will occur is equal to the area of the rectangle with
midpoint at x.
If n = 50 and p = 0.25 find
Add the areas of the rectangles with midpoints at
x = 14, x = 15, x = 16.
0.111 + 0.089 + 0.065 = 0.265
0.111 0.089
0.065
14 15 16
Correction for Continuity
Use the normal approximation to the binomial to
find .
14 15 16
14 15 16