NAME: _______________________________________

GRADE and SECTION: _______________________

Introduction
Statistics is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with gathering , organizing, presenting, analyzing, and
interpreting the collected data. There are two branches of statistic-descriptive and inferential statistics.
In performing all these processes involved, the application of statistical tools and techniques is necessary.
Statistical tools derived from mathematics are useful in processing and managing numerical data in order to describe a
phenomenon and predict values.
The probability and normal distribution are also discussed in this part to equip the students with further knowledge
and skills on how to obtain the value of probability and problems about normal distributions. Among the many different
continuous probability distributions used in Statistics, the most important is the normal distributions. Its study dates to the
18th century when a mathematician , Abraham De Moivre, first developed the mathematical equation for the normal curve.
Another mathematician ,Karl Freidrich Gauss also developed the concept of the curve in the 19 th century from a study of
errors on repeated measurements of the same quantity. Thus in honor of the latter ,the normal distribution is also referred
to as Gaussian distribution.

Standard Normal Distribution

A normal distribution is a distribution of a normal random variable with mean zero and standard deviation
equal to one. A normal distribution sometimes called the bell curve, is a distribution that occurs naturally in
many situations. Gaussian distribution is another name for normal distribution. Many groups follow this type
of pattern. That’s why it’s widely used in business, statistics and in government bodies like the FDA:
 Heights of people.
 Measurement errors.
 Blood pressure.
 Points on a test.
 IQ scores.
 Salaries.

The empirical rule tells you what percentage of your data falls within a certain number of standard
deviations from the mean:

• 68% of the data falls within one standard deviation of the mean.
• 95% of the data falls within two standard deviations of the mean.
• 99.7% of the data falls within three standard deviations of the mean.

The standard deviation controls the spread of the distribution. A smaller standard deviation indicates that the
data is tightly clustered around the mean; the normal distribution will be taller. A larger standard deviation
indicates that the data is spread out around the mean; the normal distribution will be flatter and wider.

Properties of a normal distribution

 The mean, mode and median are all equal.
 The curve is symmetric at the center (i.e. around the mean, μ).
 Exactly half of the values are to the left of center and exactly half the values are to the right.
 The total area under the curve is 1.
The Standard Normal Model
A standard normal model is a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.Standard
Normal Model: Distribution of Data

One way of figuring out how data are distributed is to plot them in a graph. If the data is evenly distributed, you
may come up with a bell curve. A bell curve has a small percentage of the points on both tails and the bigger
percentage on the inner part of the curve. In the standard normal model, about 5 percent of your data would
fall into the “tails” (colored darker orange in the image below) and 90 percent will be in between. For example,
for test scores of students, the normal distribution would show 2.5 percent of students getting very low scores
and 2.5 percent getting very high scores. The rest will be in the middle; not too high or too low. The shape of
the standard normal distribution looks like this:

Standard normal model.

Practical Applications of the Standard Normal Model

The standard normal distribution could help you figure out which subject you are getting good grades in and
which subjects you have to exert more effort into due to low scoring percentages. Once you get a score in one
subject that is higher than your score in another subject, you might think that you are better in the subject where
you got the higher score. This is not always true.

You can only say that you are better in a particular subject if you get a score with a certain number of standard
deviations above the mean. The standard deviation tells you how tightly your data is clustered around the mean;
It allows you to compare different distributions that have different types of data — including different means.

For example, if you get a score of 90 in Math and 95 in English, you might think that you are better in English
than in Math. However, in Math, your score is 2 standard deviations above the mean. In English, it’s only one
standard deviation above the mean. It tells you that in Math, your score is far higher than most of the students
(your score falls into the tail).
Based on this data, you actually performed better in Math than in English!

Standard normal distribution: How to Find Probability (Steps)

Step 1: Draw a bell curve and shade in the area that is asked for in the question. The example below shows z
>-0.8. That means you are looking for the probability that z is greater than -0.8, so you need to draw a vertical
line at -0.8 standard deviations from the mean and shade everything that’s greater than that number.

shaded area is z > -0.8

Step 2: Visit the normal probability area index and find a picture that looks like your graph. Follow the instructions on
that page to find the z-value for the graph. The z-value is the probability.
Tip: Step 1 is technically optional, but it’s always a good idea to sketch a graph when you’re trying to answer probability
word problems. That’s because most mistakes happen not because you can’t do the math or read a z-table, but because
you subtract a z-score instead of adding (i.e. you imagine the probability under the curve in the wrong direction. A sketch
helps you cement in your head exactly what you are looking for.
Table A. Standard Normal Table

How can we use the standard normal distribution in solving problems on probability?

Example: Given a normal distribution with mean =300 and sd=50, find the probability that X assumes a value greater than
362.

x−μ
Solution: z=
σ

362−300
z= =1.24 P(0< Z < 1.24)= 0.3925
50

Subtract P(0 < Z < 1.24)= 0.3925 from 0.5, since half of the area under the curve is to the right of z=0.

So P(X < 362)= 0.5- 0.3925[use Table A, Standard normal table(z)]

= 0.1075

0 z

Example: Given normal distribution with mean =50 and sd= 10, find the probability that X assumes a value
between 45 and 62.Solution: Transform the values , x 1=45∧x 2=62 to z values.

45−50 62−50
z 1= =−0.5 , z 2= =1.2
10 10

Find the appropriate area for z=−.5 amd z =1.2,∈table A . Standard Normal Table(z)

P(-.5< Z < 0)= 0.1915

P(0< Z < 1.2)=.3849

Add P(-.5< Z < 0) and P(0< Z < 1.2).

P(45< X< 62)= 0.1915+ 0.3849

=0 .5764 -.5 0 1.2