Topic

Normal Distribution

Discussion and Example:

Normal Distribution
• Commonly known as normal curve
• bell shaped curve
• probability density function
• probability distribution
What is the shape of the distribution?
• BELL SHAPE CURVE
Is there a shortcut in finding the probability distribution?
• Yes, using a BINOMIAL THEOREM

Properties of Normal Distribution

1. Normal probability distribution is a bell shaped.
2. The curve is symmetric about its mean.
3. The mean is equal to the median and also equal to the mode.
4. The spread of the curve depends on the standard deviation of the distribution.
5. The tails of the curve flatten out indefinitely along the horizontal axis; always
approaching the axis but never touching it.
6. The area under the curve is 1.

Areas under portions of a normal distribution can be computed by using calculus. Since
this is a non-mathematical treatment of statistics, we will rely on computer programs
and tables to determine these areas. Figure 1 shows a normal distribution with a mean
of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. The shaded area between 40 and 60 contains
68% of the distribution.

Figure 1. Normal distribution with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10. 68% of the
area is within one standard deviation (10) of the mean (50).
Figure 2 shows a normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 20.
As in Figure 1, 68% of the distribution is within one standard deviation of the mean.
Figure 2. Normal distribution with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 20. 68% of
the area is within one standard deviation (20) of the mean (100).
The normal distributions shown in Figures 1 and 2 are specific examples of the general
rule that 68% of the area of any normal distribution is within one standard deviation of
the mean.
Figure 3 shows a normal distribution with a mean of 75 and a standard deviation of 10.
The shaded area contains 95% of the area and extends from 55.4 to 94.6. For all
normal distributions, 95% of the area is within 1.96 standard deviations of the mean. For
quick approximations, it is sometimes useful to round off and use 2 rather than 1.96 as
the number of standard deviations you need to extend from the mean so as to include
95% of the area.

Figure 3. A normal distribution with a mean of 75 and a standard deviation of 10. 95% of
the area is within 1.96 standard deviations of the mean.

Problem 1
An average light bulb manufactured by the Acme Corporation lasts 300 days with a
standard deviation of 50 days. Assuming that bulb life is normally distributed, what is the
probability that an Acme light bulb will last at most 365 days?

Solution: Given a mean score of 300 days and a standard deviation of 50 days, we want
to find the cumulative probability that bulb life is less than or equal to 365 days. Thus,
we know the following:
The value of the normal random variable is 365 days.
The mean is equal to 300 days.
The standard deviation is equal to 50 days.
We enter these values into the Normal Distribution Calculator and compute the
cumulative probability. The answer is: P( X < 365) = 0.90. Hence, there is a 90%
chance that a light bulb will burn out within 365 days.

Problem 2

Suppose scores on an IQ test are normally distributed. If the test has a mean of 100
and a standard deviation of 10, what is the probability that a person who takes the test
will score between 90 and 110?

Solution: Here, we want to know the probability that the test score falls between 90 and
110. The "trick" to solving this problem is to realize the following:

P( 90 < X < 110 ) = P( X < 110 ) - P( X < 90 )

We use the Normal Distribution Calculator to compute both probabilities on the right
side of the above equation.

To compute P( X < 110 ), we enter the following inputs into the calculator: The value of
the normal random variable is 110, the mean is 100, and the standard deviation is 10.
We find that P( X < 110 ) is 0.84.

To compute P( X < 90 ), we enter the following inputs into the calculator: The value of
the normal random variable is 90, the mean is 100, and the standard deviation is 10.
We find that P( X < 90 ) is 0.16.

We use these findings to compute our final answer as follows:

P( 90 < X < 110 ) = P( X < 110 ) - P( X < 90 )

P( 90 < X < 110 ) = 0.84 - 0.16
P( 90 < X < 110 ) = 0.68

Thus, about 68% of the test scores will fall between 90 and 110.

Practice/Drills
Answer the following question:
1. A distribution has a mean of 40 and a standard deviation of 5. 68% of the
distribution can be found between what two numbers?
a. 30 and 50
b. 0 and 45
c. 0 and 68
d. 35 and 45
 2. A distribution has a mean of 20 and a standard deviation of 3. Approximately
95% of the distribution can be found between what two numbers?
a. 17 and 23
b. 14 and 26
c. 10 and 30
d. 0 and 23
3. A normal distribution has a mean of 5 and a standard deviation of 2. What
proportion of the distribution is above 3?
4. A normal distribution has a mean of 120 and a variance of 100. 35% of the area
is below what number?
5. A normal distribution of test scores has a mean of 38 and a standard deviation of
6. Everyone scoring at or above the 80th percentile gets placed in an advanced
class. What is the cutoff score to get into the class?
6. A normal distribution of test scores has a mean of 38 and a standard deviation of
6. What percent of the students scored between 30 and 45?

References:

1. http://onlinestatbook.com/2/summarizing_distributions/variability.html
2. https://www.statisticshowto.com/probability-and-statistics/normal-distributions/find-the-area-
under-a-normal-curve/
3. https://stattrek.com/probability-distributions/normal.aspx#:~:text=The%20total%20area
%20under%20the,any%20particular%20value%20is%200.
4.