Chapter 6

Continuous Probability Distributions

6.1 Continuous Random Variables

6.2 Normal Probability Distributions
6.3 Exponential Probability Distributions
6.4 Uniform Probability Distributions

6.1 Continuous Random Variables

A continuous random variable can assume any value in an interval on the real line or in a
collection of intervals. Examples of continuous data would be: time, distance, weight
We don’t refer to the probability of the random variable assuming a particular value.
Instead, we talk about the probability of the random variable assuming a value within a
given interval.
The purpose of this chapter is to identify the probability that a specified range of values
will occur for continuous random variables, using continuous probability distributions.
Essential point: An area under a continuous probability distribution is a probability

remaining sections in chapter 6 address specific continuous probability distributions.

Continuous probability distributions can have a variety of shapes.

Shapes of the three common continuous distributions to be discussed in this chapter:

(a) The normal probability distribution is useful when the data tend to fall into the
center of the distribution and when very high and very low values are fairly rare.
(b) The exponential distribution is used to describe data where lower values tend to
dominate and higher values don’t occur very often.
(c) The uniform distribution describes data where all the values have the same
chance of occurring.

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 6.2 Characteristics of a Normal
Probability Distribution

The characteristics are:

•
• It is bell-shaped and has a single peak at the exact center of the distribution.
• The arithmetic mean, median and mode are equal and located at the peak. This is the
only probability distribution for which this is true.
• The total area under the curve is always = 1.0
• If the mean and the median are equal, then _________ the area under the curve is
above the mean and ________ is below it.
• It is perfectly symmetrical about its mean
• The normal probability distribution is asymptotic. That is the curve gets closer
and closer to the X-axis but never actually touches it.

A distribution’s mean and standard deviation describe its shape; changing the mean shifts
the distribution left or right. Changing sigma increases or decreases the spread.

A probability density function is a mathematical description of a probability

distribution.
• represents the relative distribution of frequency of a continuous random variable

Calculating Probabilities for the Normal Distribution: The Standard Normal Probability
Distribution
Any normal distribution (with any mean and standard deviation combination) can be
transformed into the standard normal distribution (z).
The standard normal distribution has mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. It is also
called the z distribution.
A z-value or standard normal value is the distance between a selected value, designated x,
and the population mean μ, divided by the population standard deviation, σ. z
measures the number of standard deviations that x is from the mean μ

The formula is:

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 • z-scores are negative for values of x that are less than the distribution mean.
• z-scores are positive for values of x that are more than the distribution mean.
• The z-score at the mean of the distribution equals zero.

General procedure for finding areas under the normal curve:

1. Formulate the problem in terms of x values
2. Calculate the corresponding z values, and restate the problem in terms of these z values
3. Find the required areas under the standard normal curve by using the table
Note: It is always useful to draw a picture showing the required areas before using the
normal table

Example 1
The monthly starting salaries of recent MBA graduates follows the normal distribution
with a mean of 6,000 and a standard deviation of $720. What is the z-value for a
salary of $6,720? What is the z value corresponding to $5,280?

A z-value of ____indicates $6.720 is ____standard deviation ______ the mean of $6,000.

A z-value of ___ indicates that $5,280 is _____ standard deviation ________ the mean of
$6000.

Areas Under the Normal Curve

About 68.26 percent of the area under the normal curve is within one standard deviation
of the mean.
μ ± 1σ

About 95.44 percent of the area under the normal curve is within two standard deviations
of the mean.
μ ± 2σ

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About 99.73 percent of the area under the normal curve is within two standard deviations
of the mean.
μ ± 3σ

Example 2
The time customers spend on the phone for service follows the normal distribution with a
mean of 12 minutes and a standard deviation of 3 minutes.

What is the probability that the next customer who calls will spend 14 minutes or less on
the phone? See the Z tables 3 and Table 4 at the back of your text starting on P. 837.
What percentage of the calls would last more than 14 minutes?

What about the percentage of calls lasting 8.5 minutes or less? How about more than 8.5
minutes?

What z value is needed to include 95% of the area under the curve? Now, find the
corresponding x value…how many minutes or less?

Example 3
Example: Probability between two values
Suppose income is normally distributed for a group of workers with a mean of $45,000

and a standard deviation of $5,000. Find the probability that a randomly selected worker
from this group has an income between $38,000 and $48,000.

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 Example 4
The monthly water usage per person in a New Brunswick town follows a normal
distribution with a mean of 20 cubic meters and a standard deviation of 5 cubic meters.
a.) The middle 68 percent of those living in the town will use how many cubic meters
of water?

About 68% of the middle monthly water usage will lie between ___ and ____cubic
meters .

b.) What is the probability that a person from the town selected at random will use
between 20 and 24 cubic meters per month?

We conclude that _____ percent of the residents use between 20 and 24 cubic meters of
water per month.

c.) What percent of the population use between 18 and 26 cubic meters per month?

We conclude that _______ percent of the residents use between 18 and 26 cubic meters
of water per month.

Example 5:
Enhanced Auto sells auto parts and supplies including a popular multi-grade motor oil.
When the stock of this oil drops to 20 gallons, a replenishment order is placed. The store
manager is concerned that sales are being lost due to stockouts while waiting for an order.
It has been determined that lead time demand is normally distributed with a mean of 15
gallons and a standard deviation of 6 gallons. a.) The manager would like to know the
probability of a stockout, or P(x > 20).
b.) If the manager of Enhanced Auto wants the probability of a stockout to be no more
than .05, what should the reorder point be?

Example 6
A manufacturing firm produces sealed window units for houses. Type A has a mean
height of 26 cm, with a stand. dev. of 0.2 cm. If a window opening is 26.3 cm high, what
is the probability that a sealed window unit will be too large to fit?

The general manager wants to improve the quality of the product. He says that all
windows that are delivered to the customers should be within .2 cm of specification (26
cm). The production manager is worried, because she believes that she will have to scrap
much of her output. a.) How much will be undeliverable?

b.) Perhaps there is a way out. One industrial standard says that if the allowable variation
is outside ±3 standard deviations, then the scrap will be < 1% . New window-making

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equipment and procedures could be implemented to reduce standard deviation. What
standard deviation is required?

The Normal Distribution to Approximate the Binomial Distribution

The normal distribution (a continuous distribution) yields a good approximation of the
binomial distribution (a discrete distribution) for large values of n.

• The normal probability distribution is a good approximation to the binomial

probability distribution when n p and n(q ) are both ³ 5 with:

Recall for a binomial experiment: μ=np and σ =√ np ( 1− p )

• There are only two mutually exclusive outcomes (success or failure) on each trial.
• A binomial distribution results from counting the number of successes.
• Each trial is independent.
• The probability is fixed from trial to trial, and the number of trials n is also fixed.

Continuity Correction Factor

The value 0.5 subtracted or added, depending on the question, to a selected value when a
discrete probability distribution is approximated by a continuous probability
distribution.

Example 7
Suppose that 15% of people are left-handed. What is the probability of finding exactly 9
left-handed people in a random sample of 50? Calculate the binomial mean, standard
deviation.
Use the normal distribution and estimate the binomial probability with

Example 8
According to Statistics Canada, 65% of Canadian households used electronic banking in
the year 2020. For a sample of 200 homes, how many of the households would you
expect to have used electronic banking?

This is the mean of a binomial distribution.

Calculate the standard deviation

What is the probability that less than 140 households in the sample have used electronic
banking?
We use the correction factor, so x is ________
The value of z is+_________.

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.
Example 9:
A resort on Galiano Island has 240 rooms. During the summer, occupancy is about 70%. The
marketing manager wants to be able to book in bus tours on short notice. Since a tour bus carries
50 people she wants 50 vacancies. What is the probability of at least 50 vacancies? (190 full
rooms or less)

n = 240 p = .70

6.3 EXPONENTIAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

- time and space intervals are continuous variables. The exponential probability
distribution measures the probability of the time or space (continuous) it takes to
complete a task or between tasks. The Poisson and Exponential Distributions are related
in that: The Poisson provides an appropriate description of the number of occurrences
per interval (countable and discreet), then the Exponential distribution provides an
appropriate description of the length of the interval between occurrences (time, space
continuous)
- typically used for waiting time problems. The equations used are:

where: e ≈ 2.71828
The mean number of occurrences over the interval
a = Any number of interest
Standard Deviation:

Example 10 The mean time between arrivals is 2 minutes. What is the probability that the next
arrival is within the next 3 minutes?

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Note: Time between arrivals is exponentially distributed with mean time between arrivals of 2
minutes (30 arrivals per 60 minutes, on average).

Example 11 A processing machine breaks down an average of once in 4 wks. What is the prob.
that the next breakdown will not occur for at least 6 wks after the previous breakdown?

Example 12: The time between arrivals of cars at Binny’s Carwash follows an
exponential probability distribution with a mean time between arrivals of 3 minutes.
Binny would like to know the probability that the time between two successive arrivals
will be 2 minutes or less.

6.4 Uniform Probability Distributions

With the continuous uniform probability distribution, the probability of any

interval in the distribution is equal to any other interval with the same width. 
Formula for the Continuous Uniform Probability Density Function: 

f(x) = 0 otherwise
 
where: 
a  = Smallest allowable continuous random variable 
b  = Largest allowable continuous random variable 

Formula for the Uniform Cumulative Distribution Function: 

where: 
x1 = Lower endpoint of the interval of interest 
x2 = Upper endpoint of the interval of interest 

Formula for the Mean of the Continuous Uniform Distribution: 

The Standard Deviation is: 

Example 13: Suppose the temperature of a solution varies with a uniform distribution

between 55 and 155 degrees. 
What is the probability that the next measured temperature is between 70 and 90
degrees? 
The total area under the distribution must be 1.0, so if the width is 100 (155 degrees −
55 degrees), the height must be 0.01: 

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What is the probability that the next measured temperature is between 70 and 90
degrees? 
What are the mean and standard deviation of the temperature of this solution?