5/3/2021 Apex Learning - Audio Transcript

Transcript: z-Values

As I mentioned, you can choose any confidence level. Usually we choose at least 90%, so we're pretty
confident of our estimate. But we can develop a more accurate formula for the confidence interval, so
we can easily construct an interval for any confidence level. Recall that 95% corresponds to the central
area under a normal curve.

First we need to know the endpoints of the area here. You can use the table of standard normal
probabilities to determine the endpoints. Recall that the endpoints are the number of standard
deviations away from the mean. We look for the z-score in a table of standard normal probabilities and
find that it's 1.96.

We call 1.96 the critical z-value for a 95% confidence interval. We write it as z* = 1.96. You might have
noticed that we used 2 before, which is a rougher estimate of z* than 1.96. What is z* for a 90%
confidence interval? There's a normal curve table in your study guide, so you can look it up. Or, if you
prefer to use your TI-83 [graphing calculator], your study guide has instructions to remind you how to do
it.

I got 1.645. And finally, the critical z-value for a 99% confidence interval is 2.576. These are the most
common confidence levels in use, so have them handy as you do your work.

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