Todays Objectives:

You will be able to describe a Normal

curve.
You will be able to find the
probability/likelihood and percentages
of a Normal curve.

Why Important?
Normal distributions are important in
statistics because
1.

Normal distributions are good descriptions for

some distributions of real data.
Ex. Scores on tests, repeated careful
measures of the same quantity,
characteristics of biological populations
2.
Normal distributions are good
approximations to the results of many kinds of
chance outcomes.
Ex. tossing a coin many times, rolling a die

The Normal curves are one of the most

common types of density curve.

Characteristics:

Symmetric, single-peaked, and bellshaped.

Tails fall off quickly, so do not expect

outliers.

Mean, Median, and Mode are all located

at the peak in the center of the curve.

Normal Curves

The mean fixes the center of the curve and

the standard deviation determines its
shape.
The standard deviation fixes the spread of
a Normal curve. If the data is close together, the standard

deviation will be small. If the data is spread out, the standard deviation
will be large. Standard Deviation is often denoted by the lowercase Greek
letter sigma

The spreadtells us how much adata

Normal Curves

The mean and the standard deviation

completely specifies the curve.
Changing the mean changes its location on
the axis.
Changing the standard deviation changes
the shape of a Normal curve.

Part 1: Normal Distribution

Characteristics of Normal Distribution:

Modeled by a bell-shaped curve [normal curve]
Symmetrical about the mean,x

(- GREEK letter mu)

Each area determined by adding or subtracting the

standard deviation, . (Greek letter sigma)
Total area under the curve is 100%, or 1.

Ex 1. Average American adult male height is 69 inches

(5 9) tall with a standard deviation of 2.5 inches.

The Normal Curve

69

59
71

61

63

65

67

Ex. 2 If the mean is 65, and standard

deviation is 2.
Use this information to fill out the x-axis.

You try! What does a population that is

normally distributed look like if given.???
= 80 and = 10

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Part 2: Empirical Rule

68%

95%
99.7%

68-95-99.7% RULE

The Empirical Rule

The Empirical Rule states that

Approximately 68% of the data values fall

within one standard deviation of the mean

Approximately 95% of the data values fall

within 2 standard deviations of the mean

Approximately 99.8% of the data values fall

within 3 standard deviations of the mean

The Empirical Rule

of the observations

fall within
standard deviation around
the mean.

68% of data

The Empirical Rule

of the observations

fall within
standard deviation around
the mean.

68% of data

The Empirical Rule

of the observations

fall within
standard deviation around
the mean.

95% of data

The Empirical Rule

of the observations

fall within
standard deviation around
the mean.

99.8% of data

The Empirical Rule

99.8% of data
95% of data
68% of data

Empirical Rule
34% 34%
68%
47.5%

47.5%
95%

49.85%

49.85%
99.7%

Empirical Rule
What is the probability (likelihood) that a randomly
selected adult male would have a height less than
69 inches?
Answer: P(h < 69) = .50
P represents Probability
h represents one adult
male height

Using the Empirical Rule

What is the Probability (likelihood) that a randomly
selected adult male will have a height between 64 and
74 inches?

P(64 < h < 74) = .95

Examples
1.What percent of the data
scores were above a 76?

13.5%
.1%

34%

34%

2.4%

64 70 76

82

13.5%
2.4%

.1%

88 94 100

Examples
2. 68% of the data fall between
what two scores?

13.5%
.1%

34%

34%

2.4%

64 70 76

82

13.5%
2.4%

.1%

88 94 100

Examples
3. What percent of the data scores fall
between 70 and 100?

13.5%
.1%

34%

34%

2.4%

64 70 76

82

13.5%
2.4%

.1%

88 94 100

Examples

4. How many standard deviations away

from the mean is 88, and in which
direction?

13.5%
.1%

34%

34%

2.4%

64 70 76

82

13.5%
2.4%

.1%

88 94 100

Using Empirical Rule

What is the probability (likelihood) that a randomly
selected adult male would have a height of less than
66.5 inches?
P(h < 66.5) = 1 (.50 + .34) = .16
OR .50 - .34 = .16

Using Empirical Rule--Let H~N(69, 2.5)

What is the probability that a randomly selected
adult male would have a height between 64 and
76.5 inches?
P(64 < h < 76.5) = .475 + .4985
= .9735
OR .95 + 2.35

Your Turn! A normal distribution has a mean

of 18 and a standard deviation of 3. Find
the probability that a randomly selected xvalue from the given distribution is in the
interval.

a. Between 12 and
18

b. At least 21

13.5 34 47.5 .475 13.5 2.35 .15 16 .16

Your Turn again!

A normal distribution has a mean of 18 and
a standard deviation of 3. Find the
probability that a randomly selected x-value
from the given distribution is in the interval.
YOU TRY!

c. At most 12

.15 2.35 2.5 .025

d. Between 9 and 21

2.35 13.5 34 34 83.85 .8385

Your Turn. The heights of 3000 women at a

particular college are normally distributed with
a mean of 65 inches and a standard deviation
of 2.5 inches.
a) About what percentage of college women have
heights below 70 inches?

97.5
%

b) About how many of the college women have heights

between 60 inches and 65 inches?

1425
women

STOP! DAY 1 CONCLUDED

5. A particular leg bone for dinosaur

fossils has a mean length of 5 feet with
standard deviation of 3 inches. What is
the probability that a leg bone is less
than 62 inches?

P 62

= Normalcdf (-1E99, 62,

60, 3)

=
0.7475

6. The weight of chocolate bars from a

particular chocolate factory has a mean of 8
ounces with standard deviation of .1 ounce.
What is the percent that a randomly
selected bar is between 7.85 and 8.15
ounces?

P 7.85 x 8.15 = Normalcdf (7.85, 8.15,

8, .1)

=
86.64%

7. The grades on a statistics midterm

exam were normally distributed with
a
mean of 72 and a standard
deviation of 8.

a.P 80
What
is
the
of students
received
B
=Normalcdf
(80, 89,
x
89proportion
= a0.1419
grade.
72, 8)

xisthe
85probability
=Normalcdf
(65, 85, selected
= 0.7571
b.P 65
What
that a randomly
72,
8)
student received
between
a 65 and 85?
P x 69
c.

=Normalcdf (-1E99, 69, = 35.38%

8) of students that failed the
What is the72,
percent