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The Normal Distribution

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23 views13 pages

The Normal Distribution

Uploaded by

Coley Boyd
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Normal

Distribution
MATH 1001 – Quantitative Skills and Reasoning
Probability Unit

Adapted from College Mathematics, 1 st Edition, by T. Haynie, J. Bohart, C. Stroud,


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https://sccmath.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/college-mathematics-textbook-1st-edition.pdf
The Normal Distribution
• The Normal Distribution is a symmetric, bell-shaped distribution with
a single peak. This peak in the distribution corresponds to the mean,
median, and mode.

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The Normal Distribution Facts
• Because the distribution is symmetric, 50% of the data values are below
the mean, and 50% of the data values are above the mean.

• Data values farther from the mean become increasingly rare.

• The graph of the Normal Distribution is bell-shaped, with tapering tails


that approach, but never actually touch the horizontal axis.

• Almost all of the area under a Normal Distribution curve is within three
standard deviations of the mean.
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Example
The test scores on a math exam are approximately normally distributed
with mean 72 and standard deviation 8. Draw the associated normal
distribution curve, and label the axis appropriately.
The Empirical Rule (68-95-99.7
Rule)
Notation
μ = mean
σ = standard
deviation

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Example
Scores on a standardized test were normally distributed with a mean of 510
and a standard deviation of 95. Use the Empirical Rule to complete following
statements. Also, draw and label a sketch of the distribution.
• 68% of the students taking this exam scored between _____ and _____.

• 95% of the students taking this exam scored between _____ and _____.

• 99.7% of the students taking this exam scored between _____ and _____.
Example (cont.)
Example
Gear circumferences for a manufactured bicycle part were normally
distributed with a mean of 34 inches and a standard deviation of 0.04 inches.
• 68% of the gear circumferences were between _____ and _____.

• 95% of the gear circumferences were between _____ and _____.

• 99.7% of the gear circumferences were between _____ and _____.


Example (cont.)
Standard Scores (z-scores)
• The Empirical Rule only applies when a value is exactly 1, 2, or 3
standard deviations away from the mean. This is not usually the case.
Therefore, we use a standard score (also called “z-score”)to find the
number of standard deviations a data value is from the mean of the
distribution.
• We can plot z-scores on a special normal distribution called the
standard normal distribution. The standard normal distribution is a
normal distribution that always has a population mean of 0 and
population standard deviation of 1.

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Standard Scores (z-scores) cont.
• If z is positive, then the data value is above the mean.
• If z is negative, then the data value is below the mean.
• It can be helpful to sketch the distribution verify the z-score.

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Example
Scores on a standardized test were normally distributed with a mean of
510 and a standard deviation of 95. A student scores 365 points on the
test. What is his standard score?
Example (cont.)
Scores on a standardized test were normally distributed with a mean of
510 and a standard deviation of 95. Suppose a student’s z-score is 2.2,
what did the student score on the test?

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