AP Statistics Name____________________________________ Period______

Chapter 2 – Problem Solving with the Normal Distribution

Show your work! State – Plan – Do – Conclude!

1. Birth weights of babies born in the United States can be modeled by a normal distribution with mean
3250 grams. Approximately 16% of babies born in the US have birth weight below 2700 grams. Those
weighing less than 2500 grams are considered to be of low birth weight.

a. Make a detailed sketch of this distribution.

b. What percent of babies will have weight between 2700 grams and 3900 grams at birth?

c. What percent of babies will have birth weight below 2700 grams?

d. What percent of babies will have birth weight above 2100 grams?

e. Shade the portion of the curve that represents babies with low birth weight. Find this percentage.

f. What proportion of babies would the normal distribution predict as weighing more than 10 pounds
(4536 grams)?
2. Suppose that you are deciding whether to take Professor Scooby’s class or Professor Garfield’s class
next semester. You happen to know that each professor gives As to those scoring above 90 on the
final exam and Fs to those scoring below 60. You also happen to know that the distribution of scores
on Professor Scooby’s final is approximately normal with mean 74 and standard deviation 7, and that
the distribution on Professor Garfield’s final is also approximately normal with mean 78 and standard
deviation 18.
a. Produce a sketch of both teachers’ distributions on the same scale. Be sure that your sketch
illustrates the relative heights of each curve.

b. Which professor gives the higher proportion of As?

c. Which professor gives the higher proportion of Fs?

d. Suppose that Professor Crude has a policy of giving As to the top 10% of the scores on his final,
regardless of the actual scores. If the distribution of scores on his final turns out to be normal with
mean 69 and standard deviation 9, how high does your score have to be to earn an A?

3. Suppose that Professor Wells and Professor Zeddes both have final exam scores that are
approximately normally distributed with mean 75. The standard deviation of Wells’ scores is 10, and
that of Zeddes’ scores is 5.
a. With which professor is a score of 90 more impressive? Justify your answer.

b. With which professor is a score of 60 more discouraging? Justify your answer.

4. Suppose that the wrapper of a certain candy bar lists its weight as 2.13 ounces. Naturally, the weights
of individual bars vary somewhat. Suppose that the weights of these candy bars vary according to a
normal distribution with µ = 2.2 ounces and σ = 0.04 ounces.
a. What proportion of these bars weigh less than the advertised weight?

b. What proportion of these bars weigh more than 2.25 ounces?

c. What proportion of these bars weigh between 2.2 and 2.3 ounces?

d. If the manufacturer wants to adjust the production process so that only 1 candy bar in 1000 weighs
less than the advertised weight, what should the mean of the actual weights be (if σ remains 0.04
ounces)?

e. If the manufacturer wants to adjust the production process so that the mean remains at 2.2 ounces
but only 1 candy bar in 1000 weighs less that the advertised weight, how small does the standard
deviation of weights need to be?

f. If the manufacturer wants to adjust the production process so that the mean is reduced to 2.15
ounces but only 1 in 1000 weighs less that the advertised weight, how small does the standard
deviation of weights need to be?

5. Recall the 1.5IQR rule for determining outliers. Using a standard normal distribution, determine the z-
scores for outliers, and determine the proportion of observations from a normal distribution that would
be classified as outliers.