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Chapter Seven
The Normal Probability Distribution
GOALS
When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to:
ONE
List the characteristics of the normal probability distribution.
TWO
Define and calculate z values.
THREE
Determine the probability an observation will lie between two
points using the standard normal distribution.
FOUR
Determine the probability an observation will be above or below
a given value using the standard normal distribution.
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Time of arrivals between two consecutive
customers in a retail store.
Height of students in a class.
Pressure of car tire.
Time taken to reach IIUM campus from your
house
Examples of continuous random variables
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Various Continuous Distributions
Uniform distribution
Normal distribution
Exponential distribution
Gamma Distribution
Beta distribution
Chi-square distribution
t distribution
F distribution

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Normal Distribution
Normal distribution is perhaps the most
important from amongst all the continuous
distributions. This is because a large
number of physical phenomena follow
normal distribution.
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Suppose, in a college, there are 3,264 male
students. Their mean height and S.D. of heights
are respectively, 64.4 and 2.4 inches.
The following table provided the frequency
distribution of all the male students:

An Example:
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Height (inches) Frequency Relative frequency
56-57 3 0.0009
57-58 6 0.0018
58-59 26 0.0080
59-60 74 0.0227
60-61 147 0.0450
61-62 247 0.0757
62-63 382 0.1170
63-64 483 0.1480
64-65 559 0.1713
Frequency distribution of heights of college students
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Height (inches) Frequency Relative frequency
65-66 514 0.1575
66-67 359 0.1170
67-68 240 0.0735
68-69 122 0.0374
69-70 65 0.0199
70-71 24 0.0074
71-72 7 0.0021
72-73 5 0.0015
73-74 1 0.0003
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7- 9

- 5
0 . 4
0 . 3
0 . 2
0 . 1
. 0
x
f

(

x

r a l i t r b u i o n : m = 0 , s
2
= 1
Characteristics of a Normal Distribution
Mean, median, and
mode are equal
Normal
curve is
symmetrical
Theoretically,
curve
extends to
infinity
a














McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
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Some more examples of normal
random variable:

Students aptitude test scores in some test ,e.g. GRE,
GMAT, TOFEL, etc.
Weight of people.
Years of life expectancy.
Most of the items produced or filled by machines.
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Approximate Normal Distribution
In reality, most of the normal variables are
actually approximately normal.
Though they are approximately normal,
but still we apply the theory of normal
distribution.

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718 . 2
14 . 3
.
2
1
) (
2
2
2

e
D S
mean where
e x f
x

s
m
s
s
m
Family of Normal Distributions
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Normal curves having same
mean but different S.D.s
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With continuous distribution, probabilities of
outcomes occurring between particular points
are determined by calculating the area under
the curve between those points.
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For plant B, what is the probability that a randomly selected
employees length of service will be between 22 and 25 years?
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dx e
dx x f
x
2
2
2
25
22
25
22
2
1
) (
s
m
s

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There are infinite number of normal distributions
for infinite number of combination of values of (
and ).
Fortunately, we can transform all normal
distributions to a single normal distribution,
called standard normal distribution.
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Standard Normal Variable
s
m

X
z
1. Above is the way to standardize all the normal
variables.
2. Z represents number of S.D.s away from the mean.
3. Standard normal variable has zero mean and S.D. = 1.
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Previous Example
28 . 1
9 . 3
20 25
, 25
51 . 0
9 . 3
20 22
, 22

z X For
X
z X For
s
m
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Example 1:
Let us state the previous problem again. The mean length of
service of the employees in Plant B = 20 years with S.D. =
3.9 years. What is the probability that a randomly selected
employees length of service lies between mean and 22
years?


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Example 2:
What is the probability that a randomly selected employees
length of service is less than 22 years? [z=0.51, p=0.195+0.50 =
0.695]

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Example 3:
What is the probability of obtaining a length of service
greater than 26 years? [Ans: z=1.54; p=0.5-0.4382=0.0618]

Example 4:
What is the probability that the length of service will be less
than 19 years? [Ans: z=-0.26; p=0.50-0.1026=0.3974]




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Example 5:
What is the probability that the length of service lie between
16 and 23 years? [Ans: z=-1.03, 0.77; 0.3485+0.2794=0.6279]



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Example 6:
What is the probability that the
length of service will lie between 17-
19 years? [z=-0.77, z=0.26; p=0.2794-0.1026=0.1768]

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Application of Empirical Rule
-3s -2s -1s +1s +2s +3s
Mean
68.26%
95.44%
99.74%
s = Standard deviation
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Example 7:
The Federal Reserve System publishes data on family income
based on its Survey of Customer Finances. When the head of the
household has a college degree, the mean before-tax family
income is $70,400. Suppose that 60% of the before-tax family
incomes when the head of the household has a college degree are
between $61,200 and $79,600 and that these incomes are normally
distributed. What is the standard deviation of before-tax family
incomes when the head of the household has a college degree?
[area=0.84 for z=0.3; sigma=10952]
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Example 8:
A tire manufacturer wishes to set a minimum mileage guarantee on
its new MX 100 tire. Tests reveal the mean mileage is 68,500 with
a standard deviation of 2125 miles and a normal distribution. The
manufacturer wants to set the minimum guaranteed mileage so that
no more than 5 percent of the tires will have to be replaced. What
minimum guaranteed mileage should the manufacturer announce?
[z=-1.645, X=65004]
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