LESSON 7: Normal Distribution in Statistics

The normal distribution is a probability function that describes how the values of a variable are distributed. It is a
symmetric distribution where most of the observations cluster around the central peak and the probabilities for values
further away from the mean taper off equally in both directions. It is also known as the Gaussian distribution and the bell
curve.
We say the data is "normally distributed":

The Normal Distribution has:

• mean = median = mode

• symmetry about the center
• 50% of values less than the mean and 50% greater than the
mean

Example:

Parameters of the Normal Distribution

As with any probability distribution, the parameters for the normal distribution define its shape and probabilities entirely.
The normal distribution has two parameters, the mean and standard deviation. The normal distribution does not have
just one form. Instead, the shape changes based on the parameter values.

1. Mean
The mean is the central tendency of the distribution. It defines the location of the peak for normal distributions.

2. Standard Deviation
The standard deviation is a measure of variability. It defines the width of the normal distribution. The standard
deviation determines how far away from the mean the values tend to fall. It represents the typical distance
between the observations and the average.
Common Properties for All Forms of the Normal Distribution
Despite the different shapes, all forms of the normal distribution have the following characteristic properties:

• They’re all symmetric. The normal distribution cannot model skewed distributions.
• The mean, median, and mode are all equal.
• Half of the population is less than the mean and half is greater than the mean.
• The Empirical Rule allows you to determine the proportion of values that fall within certain distances from the
mean.

The Empirical Rule for the Normal Distribution

When you have normally distributed data, the standard deviation becomes particularly valuable. You can use it to
determine the proportion of the values that fall within a specified number of standard deviations from the mean.

Mean +/- Percentage of data

standard contained
deviations
1 68%
2 95%
3 99.7%

Example:

Assume that a pizza restaurant has a mean delivery time of 30 minutes and a standard deviation of 5 minutes.

Standard Normal Distribution and Standard Scores

The standard normal distribution is a special case of the normal distribution where the mean is zero and the standard
deviation is 1. This distribution is also known as the Z-distribution.

A value on the standard normal distribution is known as a standard score or a Z-score. A standard score represents the
number of standard deviations above or below the mean that a specific observation fall.

Standard scores are a great way to understand where a specific observation falls relative to the entire distribution. They
also allow you to take observations drawn from normally distributed populations that have different means and standard
deviations and place them on a standard scale. This standard scale enables you to compare observations that would
otherwise be difficult. This process is called standardization.
To standardize your data, you need to convert the raw measurements into Z-scores.

To calculate the standard score for an observation, take the raw measurement, subtract the mean, and divide by the
standard deviation. Mathematically, the formula for that process is the following:

X - x̅
Z=
σ

Example:

Suppose we literally want to compare apples to oranges. Specifically, let’s compare their weights. Imagine that we have
an apple that weighs 110 grams and an orange that weighs 100 grams.

Apples Oranges
Mean weight grams 100 140
Standard Deviation 15 25

Then:

Apples: Orages

110 – 100 100 – 140

Z= Z=
15 25

10 -40
Z= Z=
15 25

Z = 0.667 Z = -1.6
Finding Areas Under the Curve of a Normal Distribution
The normal distribution is a probability distribution. As with any probability distribution, the proportion of the area that
falls under the curve between two points on a probability distribution plot indicates the probability that a value will fall
within that interval.
Using a Table of Z-scores

Let’s take the Z-score for our apple (0.667) and use it to determine its weight percentile. A percentile is the proportion
of a population that falls below a specific value. In the portion of the table below, the closest Z-score to ours is 0.65,
which we’ll use.

The table value indicates that the area of the curve between -0.65 and +0.65 is 48.43%.

So, if the area for the interval from -0.65 and +0.65 is 48.43%, then the range from 0 to +0.65 must be half of that:

48.43/2 = 24.215%.

Therefore, the area for all scores up to 0.65 = 50% + 24.215% = 74.215%

Our apple is at approximately the 74th percentile.

Confidence Interval
A confidence interval is a range of values, derived from sample statistics, which is likely to contain the value of an
unknown population parameter.

Example:

We measure the heights of 40 randomly chosen men, and get a mean height of 175cm, We also know the standard
deviation of men's heights is 20cm. What is the confidence interval at 95%?

Step 1: start with

• the number of observations n
• the mean x̅
• and the standard deviation s

Using our example:

• number of observations n = 40
• mean X = 175
• standard deviation s = 20

Step 2: decide what Confidence Interval we want: 95% or 99% are common choices. Then find the "Z" value for that
Confidence Interval here:

Confidence Z
Interval
80% 1.282
85% 1.440
90% 1.645
95% 1.960
99% 2.576
99.5% 2.807
99.9% 3.291

For 95% the Z value is 1.960

Step 3: use that Z value in this formula for the Confidence Interval

s
x̅ ± Z
n

Where:
• X is the mean
• Z is the chosen Z-value from the table above
• s is the standard deviation
• n is the number of observations

And we have:
175 ± 1.960 × 20√40
Which is:

175cm ± 6.20cm

In other words: from 168.8cm to 181.2cm