Probability & Statistics PF 2010

The Normal Distribution

1.0 Introduction
The Normal Distrubution is a bell-shaped, symmetrical, data distribution where the
mean, mode and median lie along the line of symmetry of the distribution (Figure 1).
The distribution occurs widely in the physical and social sciences. Students may be
interested to know that examination results for example, are normally distributed.

Of particular note is the fact that 68% of the distribution lies within 1 standard
deviation of the mean and 95% of the distribution lies within approximately 2
standard deviations of the mean. The distribution is completely defined by the mean
and the standard deviation. Therefore, once the mean and standard deviation of
normally distributed data are known, further inferences can be made about the data.

Figure 1. The Normal Distribution

2.0 Normal Distribution Examples

If data is normally distributed, then 95% of data points are within 1.96 standard
deviations of the mean. This information can also be turned around to calculate how
much of the data distribution is within 1.5 standard deviations of the mean. This is
shown in the next example.

Example 1:
In a driving school, the time taken by student drivers to complete a full circuit of the
test course was found to be normally distributed with a mean of 45 minutes and a
standard deviation of 10 minutes.

(i) What proportion of students will complete the circuit in an hour?

Probability & Statistics 1 PF 2010

Probability & Statistics PF 2010

When addressing this problem, it is important to recognise that since the Normal
curve is symmetric, half of the students will complete the test in 45 minutes or less.
A further 15 minutes is 15/10 = 1.5 standard deviations (Z value 0.4332) from the
mean.
=> The number of students who complete the circuit in 1 hour:
= (0.4332 + 0.50) x 100 %
= 93.32%

(ii) How long should the driving lessons last so that 95% of students will
have finished the circuit by the end of their lesson?
45 + 1.65(10) = 45 + 16.5 minutes
= 61.5 minutes
Note that in this problem, the area of the Normal Curve that is of interest is the
0.5 on the left (The half that is less than or equal to the mean) and 0.45 on the
right hand side to make up 95% in total.

Example 2:
A study of data collected at a light bulb factory shows that a batch of 6000 light bulbs
have a mean life of 1000 hours with a standard deviation of 75 hours. Assuming a
Normal Distribution, estimate :

(i) How many bulbs will fail before 900 hours?

Z = (1000 – 900)/75 = 1.33

P(1.33) can be read from table as 0.4082
=> Bulbs that fail before 900 hours:
= 6000(0.5 - 0.4082)
= 6000(0.0918)
= 550.8

(ii) How many bulbs will fail between 950 and 1000 hours?
Z = (1000 – 950)/75 = 0.67
P(0.67) can be read from table as 0.2486
=> Bulbs that fail between 950 and 1000 hours:
= 6000 x 0.2486
= 1491.6

(iii) How many bulbs will fail between 1000 and 1050 hours?

Hint: Look again carefully at part (ii)

Probability & Statistics 2 PF 2010