Lesson 4.

Normal Distribution

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Normal Distributions
A wide variety of quantities in the real world, like
sizes of individuals in a population, IQ scores, and
many others, tend to exhibit the same phenomenon,
in which we see that the largest number have values
somewhere in the middle of the range, and the
classes further away from the center have smaller
values. In fact, it’s so common that frequency
distributions of this type came to be known as normal
distributions.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Normal Distributions
A normal distribution is a continuous, symmetric,
bell-shaped distribution.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Normal Distributions
A probability distribution that plots all of its values in
a symmetrical fashion and most of the results are
situated around the probability’s mean is called a
normal distribution.
Values are equally likely to plot either above or below
the mean. Grouping takes place at values that are
close to the mean and then tails off symmetrically
away from the mean.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Normal Distributions
Some Properties of a Normal Distribution
1.The value in the middle of the distribution, which
appears most often in the sample, is the mean.

2. The distribution is symmetric about the mean. This

means that the graph has two halves that are mirror
images on either side of the mean value.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 3. This is the key fact:
-the area under any portion of the curve is the
percentage (in decimal form) of data values that
fall between the values that begin and end that
region.

4. The total area under the entire curve is 1.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 1 Getting Information from a
Normal Curve
The graph below shows a normal distribution for
heights of women in the United States. The
numbers on the horizontal axis are heights in
inches, and some areas are labeled for reference.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 (a) What is the mean height?
(b) What percentage of women are between 57.4
and 59.1 inches tall?
(c) If there are 31,806 women at a stadium
concert, how many of them would you expect to
be between 63.7 and 66.0 inches tall?

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 1 :;;; SOLUTION

(a) The mean is the value in the very center of a normal

distribution, and it corresponds to the value that appears
most often. This would be the highest point on the
graph, which is labeled 63.7. So the mean height for
American women is 63.7 inches.
(b) This is what the third property in the colored box is
about. The diagram indicates that the area under the
normal graph between 57.4 and 59.1 is 0.034. This is
the decimal form of the percentage of data values that
fall in that range. Converting 0.034 to percent form by
moving the decimal point two places right, we get 3.4%.
So we’d expect that about 3.4% of women would have
heights in that range.
©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 1 SOLUTION continued

(c) This is the same question with a twist. It asks for the
number of women, not a percentage. But we can find that
number by first finding a percentage. In this case, the
area under that portion of the graph is 0.303, so we’d
expect 30.3% of women to have heights between 63.7
and 66.0 inches. In particular, we’d expect 30.3% of the
women at the concert to have a height in that range.
30.3 % of 31,806 = 0.303 × 31,806 = 9,637.218
We’re talking about human beings here, not leftover body
parts, so the .218 part is irrelevant. We’d expect about
9,637 women to be between 63.7 and 66.0 inches tall.
.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Empirical Rule
When data are normally distributed,
approximately 68% of the values are within 1
standard deviation of the mean,
approximately 95% are within 2 standard deviations
of the mean, and
approximately 99.7% are within 3 standard
deviations of the mean.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Empirical Rule

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 2 Using the Empirical Rule
According to the website answerbag.com,
the mean height for male humans is 5 feet 9.3
inches, with a standard deviation of 2.8 inches. If
this is accurate, out of 1,000 randomly selected
men, how many would you expect to be between 5
feet 6.5 inches and 6 feet 0.1 inch?

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 2 Using the Empirical Rule
SOLUTION
The given range of heights corresponds to those within 1
standard deviation of the mean, so we would expect about
68% of men to fall in that range. In this case, we expect
about 680 men to be between 5 feet 6.5 inches and 6 feet
0.1 inch.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Standard Normal Distribution
The standard normal distribution is a normal
distribution with mean 0 and standard deviation 1.
The values under the curve shown indicate the
proportion of area in each section.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Z Score

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 3 Computing a z Score
Based on the information in Example 2, find the z
score for a man who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and
describe what it tells us.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 4 Using z Scores to Compare
Standardized Test Scores (1 of 2)
As you probably know, there are two main
companies that offer standardized college entrance
exams, ACT and SAT. Since each has a completely
different scoring scale, it’s really difficult to compare
the scores of students that took different exams.
One year the ACT had a mean score of 21.2 and a
standard deviation of 5.1. That same year, the SAT
had a mean score of 1498 and a standard deviation
of 347. Suppose that a scholarship committee is
considering two students, one who scored 26 on the
ACT and another who scored 1800 on the SAT. Both
are pretty good scores, but which one is better?
©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 4 Using z Scores to Compare
Standardized Test Scores (2 of 2)

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Z Score and Area
The value of z scores is that they will allow us to find
areas under a normal curve using only areas under a
standard normal curve, which can be read from a
table, like this one.
Area under a Normal Distribution curve
between z = 0 and a positive z value
z A z A z A z A
0.00 0.000 0.20 0.079 0.40 0.155 0.60 0.226
0.05 0.020 0.25 0.099 0.45 0.174 0.65 0.242
0.10 0.040 0.30 0.118 0.50 0.192 0.70 0.258
0.15 0.060 0.35 0.137 0.55 0.209 0.75 0.273

An area table with more values can be found in

Table 11-3 and Appendix A of the text.
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Two Important Facts about the
Standard Normal Curve
1. The area under any normal curve is divided into
two equal halves at the mean. Each of the halves
has area 0.500.
2. The area between z = 0 and a positive z score is
the same as the area between z = 0 and the
negative of that z score.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (1 of 7)
Find the area under the standard normal distribution
(a) Between z = 1.55 and z = 2.25.
(b) Between z = −0.60 and z = −1.35.
(c) Between z = 1.50 and z = −1.75.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (2 of 7)
SOLUTION
(a) Draw the picture, label z scores, and shade the requested
area.
Using Table 11-3, the area between z = 0 and z = 2.25 is
0.488, and the area between z = 0 and z = 1.55 is 0.439.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (3 of 7)
SOLUTION continued
The area we are looking for is the larger area minus the
smaller:
0.488 - 0.439 = 0.049
The area between z = 1.55 and z = 2.25 is 0.049.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (4 of 7)
SOLUTION continued
(b) Draw the picture, label z scores, and shade the requested
area.
All of the z scores in the table are positive, but the areas
for negative z scores are exactly the same as for the
corresponding positive z scores.
So we can get the area between z = 0 and z = −1.35 by
looking up z = 1.35 in Table 11-3, which gives us 0.412.
We can then get the area for z = −0.60 by looking up z =
0.60 in the table: the result is 0.226.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (5 of 7)
SOLUTION continued
Again, the area we’re looking for is the larger area minus the
smaller:
0.412 - 0.226 = 0.186
The area between z = -0.60 and z = -1.35 is 0.186.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (6 of 7)
SOLUTION continued
(c) Draw the picture, label the z scores, and shade the
requested area.
In this case, the values we get from Table 11-3 give us the
areas between z = 0 and the z scores of ─1.75 and 1.50.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 5 Finding the Area between Two
z Scores (7 of 7)
SOLUTION continued
The entire shaded area is the sum of these two areas, so
we’ll add the two areas we get from the table.
The area corresponding to z = −1.75 is 0.460, and the area
corresponding to z = 1.50 is 0.433.
0.460 + 0.433 = 0.893
The area between z = 1.50 and z = −1.75 is 0.893.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 6 Finding the Area to the Right of a
z Score (1 of 5)
Find the area under the standard normal distribution
(a)To the right of z = 1.70.
(b)To the right of z = – 0.95.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 6 Finding the Area to the Right of a
z Score (2 of 5)
SOLUTION
(a) Draw the picture, label the z score, and shade the area.
The area of the entire portion to the right of z = 0 is 0.500.
According to Table 11-3, the area of the portion between
z = 0 and z = 1.70 is 0.455.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 6 Finding the Area to the Right of a
z Score (3 of 5)
SOLUTION continued
So the shaded portion is the difference between 0.500 and
0.455:
0.500 - 0.455 = 0.045
The area to the right of z = 1.70 is 0.045.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 6 Finding the Area to the Right of a
z Score (4 of 5)
SOLUTION continued
(b) Draw the picture, label the z score, and shade the area.
The area between z = 0 and z = −0.95, we find to be
0.329 using Table 11-3.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 6 Finding the Area to the Right of a
z Score (5 of 5)
SOLUTION continued
This time, the area is the sum of 0.500 (the entire right half of
the distribution) and the area from the table:
0.500 + 0.329 = 0.829
The area to the right of z = -0.95 is 0.829.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 7 Finding the Area to the Left
of a z Score (1 of 3)
Find the area under the standard normal distribution
(a) To the left of z = −2.20.
(b) To the left of z = 1.95.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 7 Finding the Area to the Left
of a z Score (2 of 3)
SOLUTION
(a) Draw the picture, label the z score, and shade the area.
The shaded area is the entire left half (0.500) minus the area
between z = 0 and z = -2.2, which is 0.486 according to
Table 11-3.
0.500 - 0.486 = 0.014
The area to the left
of z = -2.2 is 0.014.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
EXAMPLE 7 Finding the Area to the Left
of a z Score (3 of 3)
SOLUTION continued
(b) Draw the picture, label the z score, and shade the area.
Table 11-3 gives us an area of 0.474 between z = 0 and z =
1.95. Adding to the area of the left half (0.500), we get
0.500 + 0.474 = 0.974
The area to the left
of z = 1.95 is 0.974.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology
Technology can be used to find areas under a
normal curve. There are a few reasons why this is
really helpful. First, we don’t have to look up values
in a table, which is always a plus if you don’t have
the table handy. Second, you don’t have to worry
about estimating when looking up a value that’s not
exactly in the table. Third, it turns out that you don’t
even need to compute z scores: the commands
allow you to enter raw data values along with the
mean and standard deviation for that data set.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Graphing Calculator (1 of 5)
On a TI-84 calculator, the normalcdf(a,b,μ,σ)
command will find the area bounded by a normal
curve, the x axis and vertical lines at a lower bound a
and an upper bound b. You get to this command by
pressing 2nd VARS to get the distribution menu; then
it’s choice 2. (Don’t confuse it with choice 1,
normalpdf, which is used for a different purpose.)

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Graphing Calculator (2 of 5)
Notice that the inputs in parentheses correspond to
the lower bound (a), the upper bound (b), the mean
(μ), and the standard deviation (σ). This eliminates the
need to calculate z scores: you just need the mean
and standard deviation for the given data set.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Graphing Calculator (3 of 5)
The first screenshot below shows the area
between z = 1.50 and z = 1.75, which was part (c)
of Example 5.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Graphing Calculator (4 of 5)
If we need to compute the area to the right of a z
score, we have to be a little clever. In that case,
we’ll use that z score as lower bound, and some
really large number as upper bound. Any area left
over to the right of that large upper bound is
probably negligible. The second screenshot on the
previous slide displays a sample calculation for
Example 6b, which is the area to the right of z =
−0.95.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Graphing Calculator (5 of 5)
Finally, to compute the area to the left of a z score,
we’ll enter some really large negative number as
lower bound, and the given score as upper bound.
The third screenshot shown two slides ago is the
area in Example 7a, to the left of z = 1.95. Note
that in each case, the area requested was under
the standard normal, so I entered 0 for mean and 1
for standard deviation.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Spreadsheet (1 of 4)
The Excel command is =NORM.DIST. When you start
typing =NORM.DIST in Excel, here’s what appears, as
a guide to help you:
= NORM.DIST(x, mean, standard_dev, cumulative),
where
x is a data value.
mean is the mean for the distribution.
standard_dev is the standard deviation for the
distribution.
cumulative = TRUE; we won’t use FALSE in this book.
©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Spreadsheet (2 of 4)
This formula finds the area under a normal curve to the
left of the data value x. So to find the area to the left of
z = 1.95 in Example 7a, we’d use
= NORM.DIST(1.95, 0, 1, TRUE) as shown in row 1 of
the screenshots below.

Jump to long description

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Spreadsheet (3 of 4)
If we want to find the area to the RIGHT of a data
value, we’ll take advantage of the fact that the area
under the entire curve is always 1. The Excel
command finds the area to the left; to turn that into the
area to the right, just subtract from 1. So to find the
area to the right of z = −0.95 in Example 6b, we’d enter
= 1 − NORM.DIST(− .95, 0, 1, TRUE ) as seen in row 2
on the previous slide.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Using Technology:
Finding Areas Beneath a Normal Curve with
a Spreadsheet (4 of 4)
Finally, to find the area between two values, we need
to subtract the area to the left of the bigger value
minus the area to the left of the smaller value. To find
the area between z = 1.50 and z = 1.75 in Example 5c,
we can use
= NORM.DIST(1.75, 0, 1, TRUE) − NORM.DIST(1.50,
0, 1, TRUE) as seen in row 3 two slides ago.

©McGraw-Hill Education.
 Appendix of Image Long
Descriptions

©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
 Long description of image (1 of 13)
Bar graph a, Random sample of 100 women, consists of 7
bars. The highest bar is in the middle and the bars get
lower as we move away from the center bar. Bar graph b,
Sample size increased and class width decreased, consists
of 14 bars more narrow than those in graph a. The highest
2 bars are in the middle, at about the same height as the
highest bars in a, and the bars get lower as we move away
from the center. Bar graph c, Sample size increased and
class width decreased further, consists of 28 bars more
narrow than those in graph b. The highest 2 bars are in the
middle and the bars get lower as we move away from the
center. Graph d is a curve that resembles the shape of a
bell. A dashed vertical line indicates the middle of the
graph, where it peaks at a height about the same as the
height of the tallest bars in graphs a, b, and c.
©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image
 Long description of image (2 of 13)
A bell shaped curve with a vertical line at the center at 63
point 7. To the right of the center there is a vertical line at
66 point 0. Between these two vertical lines, the area
under the curve is shaded and is 0 point 3 0 3. To the left
of the center, there are vertical lines at 57 point 4 and 59
point 1. Between these two vertical lines, the area under
the curve is shaded and is 0 point 0 3 4.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (3 of 13)
Tick marks along the horizontal axis are as follows: X bar
minus 3 s, X bar minus 2 s, X bar minus 1 s, X bar, X bar
plus 1 s, X bar plus 2 s, X bar plus 3 s. X bar minus 3 s is
toward the far left of the graph, tick marks are equally
spaced, and X bar is at the center of the curve. Below the
horizontal axis, it states the following: between X bar minus
1 s and X bar plus 1 s, about 68 percent; between X bar
minus 2 s and X bar plus 2 s, about 95 percent; between X
bar minus 3 s and X bar plus 3 s, about 99 point 7 percent.
Vertical lines are drawn from each tick mark along the
horizontal axis to the curve, which splits the area under the
curve in to 8 regions. The regions are labeled as follows
from left to right: 0 point 1 percent, 2 point 2 percent, 13
point 6 percent, 34 point 1 percent, 34 point 1 percent, 13
point 6 percent, 2 point 2 percent, 0 point 1 percent.
©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image
 Long description of image (4 of 13)
Tick marks along the horizontal axis are as follows:
negative 3, negative 2, negative 1, 0, positive 1, positive 2,
positive 3. Negative 3 is toward the far left of the graph,
tick marks are equally spaced, and 0 is at the center of the
curve. Vertical lines are drawn from each tick mark along
the horizontal axis to the curve, which splits the area under
the curve in to 8 regions. The regions are labeled as
follows from left to right: 0 point 1 percent, 2 point 2
percent, 13 point 6 percent, 34 point 1 percent, 34 point 1
percent, 13 point 6 percent, 2 point 2 percent, 0 point 1
percent.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (5 of 13)
A dashed vertical line marks the center of the curve at a
value of 0 along the horizontal axis. An arrow labeled 0
point 4 3 9 points right from the center line to a solid vertical
line at a value of 1 point 5 5 along the horizontal axis. An
arrow labeled 0 point 4 8 8 points right from the center line
to a solid vertical line at a value of 2 point 2 5 along the
horizontal axis. The area under the curve between the 2
solid vertical lines is shaded.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (6 of 13)
A dashed vertical line marks the center of the curve at a
value of 0 along the horizontal axis. An arrow labeled 0
point 2 2 6 points left from the center line to a solid vertical
line at a value of negative 0 point 6 0 along the horizontal
axis. An arrow labeled 0 point 4 1 2 points left from the
center line to a solid vertical line at a value of negative 1
point 3 5 along the horizontal axis. The area under the
curve between the 2 solid vertical lines is shaded.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (7 of 13)
A dashed vertical line marks the center of the curve at a
value of 0 along the horizontal axis. An arrow labeled 0
point 4 3 3 points right from the center line to a solid vertical
line at a value of 1 point 5 0 along the horizontal axis. An
arrow labeled 0 point 4 6 0 points left from the center line to
a solid vertical line at a value of negative 1 point 7 5 along
the horizontal axis. The area under the curve between the
2 solid vertical lines is shaded.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (8 of 13)
A dashed vertical line at a value of 0 along the horizontal
axis marks the center of the curve. An arrow labeled 0
point 4 5 5 points right from the center line to a solid vertical
line at a value of 1 point 7 0 along the horizontal axis. The
area under the curve to the right of this vertical line is
shaded. Area to the right of z equals 0 is 0 point 5 0 0.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (9 of 13)
A dashed vertical line at a value of 0 along the horizontal
axis marks the center of the curve. An arrow labeled 0
point 5 0 0 points right from the center line indefinitely to
the right. An arrow labeled 0 point 3 2 9 points left from the
center line to a solid vertical line at a value of negative 0
point 9 5 along the horizontal axis. The area under the
curve to the right of this vertical line is shaded.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (10 of 13)
A dashed vertical line at a value of 0 along the horizontal
axis marks the center of the curve. An arrow labeled 0
point 4 8 6 points left from the center line to a solid vertical
line at a value of negative 2 point 2 along the horizontal
axis. The area under the curve to the left of this vertical
line is shaded.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (11 of 13)
A dashed vertical line at a value of 0 along the horizontal
axis marks the center of the curve. An arrow labeled 0
point 4 7 4 points right from the center line to a solid vertical
line at a value of 1 point 9 5 along the horizontal axis. The
area under the curve to the left of this vertical line is
shaded.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (12 of 13)
The first screenshot shows the command normalcdf
parenthesis 1 point 5 comma 1 point 7 5 comma 0 comma
1 close parenthesis. The answer is point 0 2 6 7 4 8 1 1 5
2. The second screenshot shows the command normalcdf
negative point 9 5 comma 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 comma 0
comma 1 close parenthesis. The answer is point 8 2 8 9 4
3 8 8 8. The third screenshot shows the command
normalcdf parenthesis negative 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 comma 1
point 9 5 comma 0 comma 1 close parenthesis. The
answer is point 9 7 4 4 1 2 0 1 0 2.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image

 Long description of image (13 of 13)
The first screenshot shows column A and rows 1, 2, and 3.
From top to bottom, entries are: 0 point 9 7 4 4 1 1 9 4, 0
point 8 2 8 9 4 3 8 7 4, 0 point 0 2 6 7 4 8 0 4 4. The
second screenshot shows column A and rows 1, 2, and 3.
From top to bottom, entries are: equals NORM point DIST
parenthesis 1 point 9 5 comma 0 comma 1 comma TRUE
close parenthesis, 1 minus NORM point DIST parenthesis
negative 0 point 9 5 comma 0 comma 1 comma TRUE
close parenthesis, equals NORM point DIST parenthesis 1
point 7 5 comma 0 comma 1 comma TRUE close
parenthesis minus NORM point DIST parenthesis 1 point 5
comma 0 comma 1 comma TRUE close parenthesis.

©McGraw-Hill Education. Jump back to slide containing original image