STATISTICS & PROBABILITY

LOCATING
PERCENTILES
UNDER THE
NORMAL CURVE
GROUP 2
WHAT IS PERCENTILE?
• A percentile is a measure of
relative standing. It is
descriptive measure of the
relationship of a
measurement to the rest of
the data.
Percentile and z-scores

• A probability value corresponds to an

area under the normal curve.
• In the Table of Areas Under the Normal
Curve, the numbers in the extreme left
and across the top are z-scores, which are
the distance along the Horizontal Scale.The
numbers in the body of the table are areas
or probabilities.
• The z-scores to the left of the mean are negative values.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE:
FIND THE 95th PERCENTILE OF A NORMAL
CURVE.

ANALYSIS
P95 means locating an area before(or below)
the point.
We want to know what the z-value is at this point.
 STEPS
1. DRAW THE APPROPRIATE
NORMAL CURVE.
2. EXPRESS THE GIVEN
PERCENTAGE AS PROBABILITY.
3. SPLIT 0.9500 INTO 0.5000
AND 0.4500.
4. SHADE .5000 OF THE SKETCH OF
THE NORMAL CURVE IN STEP 1.
5. REFER TO THE TABLE OF AREAS UNDER
THE NORMAL CURVE, LOCATE THE AREA
0.4500 IN THE BODY OF THE TABLE.
SOLUTION
95% IS THE SAME AS
0.9500
0.9500= 0.5000+ 0.4500
THE PROPORTION OF THE
AREA ABOVE IS .8413
THIS AREA IS NOT FOUND IN THE TABLE. IT
IS
BETWEEN THE VALUE OF 0.4995 AND 0.4505
6. FIND THE Z-SCORE THAT FIND A Z BY
CORRESPONDS TO 0.4500 ON THE
LEFTMOST COLUMN.
INTERPOLATION,
AS FOLLOWS.
7. FIND THE Z-VALUE THAT 0.4505 <—> Z= 1.64
CORRESPONDS TO 0.4505.
8. FIND THE Z-VALUE THAT
CORRRESPONDS TO 0.4495.
0.4495 <—> Z=1.64
9. FIND THE AVERAGE OF THE
TWO Z-VALUES. Z= 1.645
10. LOCATE Z=1.645 UNDER THE THE 95TH PERCENTILE
CURVE IN STEP 1 AND MAKE A
STATEMENT. IS Z= 1.645
11. DRAW A LINE THROUGH DO THIS UNDER THE
UNDER THE CURVE IN STEP SKETCH OF THE CURVE
1. IN STEP 1.
12. SHade the region to the left of DO THIS UNDER THE
z=1.645 SKETCH OF THE CURVE
IN STEP 1.
13. DESCRIBE THE SHAPED THE SHAPED REGION IS 95% OF
REGION. THE DISTRIBUTION.
LET'S TRY THIS!

a. Find the 90th percentile.

b. Find the 75th percentile.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!