Lesson 10-11 - Normal Curve
Lesson 10-11 - Normal Curve
Distribution
Properties of the Normal Distribution
EXAMPLE Illustrating the Uniform Distribution
Suppose that United Parcel Service is supposed to
deliver a package to your front door and the arrival time is
somewhere between 10 am and 11 am. Let the random
variable X represent the time from10 am when the
delivery is supposed to take place. The delivery could be
at 10 am (x = 0) or at 11 am (x = 60) with all 1-minute
interval of times between x = 0 and x = 60 equally likely.
That is to say your package is just as likely to arrive
between 10:15 and 10:16 as it is to arrive between 10:40
and 10:41. The random variable X can be any value in
the interval from 0 to 60, that is, 0 < X < 60. Because any
two intervals of equal length between 0 and 60, inclusive,
are equally likely, the random variable X is said to follow
a uniform probability distribution.
Probability Density Function
A probability density function is an equation that
is used to compute probabilities of continuous
random variables that must satisfy the following
two properties. Let f(x) be a probability density
function.
1. The area under the graph of the equation over all
possible values of the random variable must equal
one,that is f ( x)dx 1
xS
(10:20-10:10)/60=10/60=1/6
Relative frequency histograms that are symmetric
and bell-shaped are said to have the shape of a
normal curve.
If a continuous random variable is normally
distributed or has a normal probability
distribution, then a relative frequency histogram
of the random variable has the shape of a
normal curve (bell-shaped and symmetric).
Properties of the Normal Density Curve
7. The Empirical Rule: About 68% of the area
under the graph is within one standard deviation
of the mean; about 95% of the area under the
graph is within two standard deviations of the
mean; about 99.7% of the area under the graph
is within three standard deviations of the mean.
EXAMPLE A Normal Random Variable
P(-1.02<x<2.94)=P(x<2.94)-p(x<-1.02)
=0.9984-0.1539
=0.8445
EXAMPLE Finding a Z-score from a Specified
Area to the Left