The Normal Distribution
The Normal Distribution
NORMAL
DISTRIBUTI
ON
THE NORMAL
DISTRIBUTIO
N AND ITS
PROPERTIES
Consider the event of tossing three coins once, then follow these
steps:
1. List all the possible outcomes using the tree diagram
2. Determine the sample space
3. Determine the possible values of the random variables
4. Assign probability values P(x) to each of the random variable
5. Construct a probability histogram to describe the p(x).
Guide Questions:
6. How many possible outcomes are there?
7. What composes the sample space?
8. How will you describe the histogram?
The following are the properties that can be observed from the graph of a normal
distribution, also known as Gaussian Distribution.
1. The graph is a continuous curve and has a domain -∞ < x < ∞.
• This means that x may increase or decrease without bound.
2. The graph is asymptotic to the x-axis. The value of the variable gets closer and closer
but will never be equal to 0.
• As x gets larger and larger in the positive direction, the tail of the curve approaches
but will never touch the horizontal axis. The same thing when the x gets larger and
larger in the negative direction.
3. The highest point on the curve occurs at x = µ (mean).
• The mean (µ) indicates the highest peak of the curve and is found at the center.
• Take note that the mean is denoted by this symbol µ and the standard deviation is
denoted by the symbol σ.
• The median and mode of the distribution are also found at the center of the graph.
This indicates that in a normal distribution, the mean, median, and mode are equal.
4. The curve is symmetrical about the mean.
• This means that the curve will have balanced proportions when cut in halves
and the area under the curve to the right of the mean (50%) is equal to the
area under the curve to the left of the mean (50%).
5. The total area in the normal distribution under the curve is equal to 1.
• Since the mean divides the curve into halves, 50% of the area is to the right
and 50% to its left having a total of 100% o 1.
6. In general, the graph of a normal distribution is a bell-shaped curve with two
inflection points, one on the left and another on the right. Inflection points are
the points that mark the change in the curve’s concavity.
• Inflection point is the point at which a change in the direction of curve at
mean minus standard deviation.
• Note that each inflection point of the normal curve is one standard deviation
away from the mean.
7. Every normal curve corresponds to the
“empirical rule” (also called the 68 – 95 – 99.7%
rule):
• About 68.3% of the area under the curve falls
within 1 standard deviation of the mean.
• About 95.4% of the area under the curve falls
within 2 standard deviation of the mean.
• About 99.7% of the area under the curve falls
within 3 standard deviation of the mean.
EXAMPLE 1:
Suppose the mean is 60 and
the standard deviation is 5,
sketch a normal curve for the
distribution.
EXAMPLE 2:
A continuous random variable X is normally
distributed with a mean of 45 and standard deviation
of 6. illustrate a normal curve and find the probability
of the following:
a.P(39 < X < 51) =
b.P(33 < x < 63) =
c.P(X > 45 =
d.P(x < 39) =
THE
STANDARD
NORMAL
DISTRIBUTI
ON
As mentioned earlier, normal variable is standardized by
setting the mean to 0 and standard deviation to 1. this is for
the purpose of simplifying the process in approximating
areas for normal curves. As shown below is the formula
used to manually compute the approximate area.
1.
EXAMPLE:
2.
EXAMPLE:
3.
EXAMPLE:
PRACTICE EXAMPLE:
THE
PERCENTI
LE
THE PERCENTILE
•A percentile is a measure
used in statistics indicating
the value below which a
given percentage of
observations in a group of
observations fall.