Normal Distribution

Normal Distribution
The normal distribution is the most important and most widely used
distribution in statistics. It is sometimes called the “bell curve” or the
“Gaussian curve after the mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss.
Normal distributions can differ in their means and in their standard
deviations.
These as well as all other normal distributions are symmetric with
relatively more values at the center of the distribution and relatively
few in the tails.
Normal Distribution
The density of the normal
distribution (the height
for a given value on the x-
axis) is shown below. The
parameters μ and σ are
the mean and standard
deviation, respectively,
and define the normal
distribution.
Parameters of the Normal Distribution
1. The mean defines the
location of the peak of the
normal distribution. Most 1. The standard deviation
values cluster around the defines the width of the
mean normal distribution.
Properties of Normal Distribution
1) The normal distribution curve is bell-shaped.
2) The mean, median, and mode are equal and located at the center of the
distribution.
3) The normal distribution curve is unimodal.
4) The curve is symmetrical about the mean.
5) The curve is continuous.
6) The curve never touches the x axis.
7) The total area under the normal distributions curve is equal to 1 or 100%
Empirical Rule
Empirical Rule, which describes the percentage of the data that fall
within specific numbers of standard deviations from the mean for bell-
shaped curves.
1. About 68% of the values in the population fall within ±1 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 from the mean
(actual value 68.27%)
2. About 95% of the values in the population fall within ±2 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 from the mean
(actual value 95.45%)
3. About 99.7% of the values in the population fall within ±3 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 from the mean
(actual value 99.73%)
Empirical Rule
Empirical Rule
 Example
 
Heights of 18-year-old males have a bell-shaped distribution with mean 69.6 inches and
standard deviation 1.4 inches.
◦ About what proportion of all such men are between 68.2 and 71 inches tall?
◦ What interval centered on the mean should contain about 95% of all such men?

1. Since the interval from 68.2 to 71.0 has endpoints and , by the Empirical Rule about 68% of all 18-
year-old males should have heights in this range.
2. By the Empirical Rule, about 95% of the values in the population fall within ±2 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
from the mean. Thus, we need to substitute our values to .
= 69.6 – 2 (1.4) = 66.8 ; = 69.6 + 2 (1.4) = 72.4
The interval that contain the 95% of men is from 66.8 inches to 72.4 inches tall.
Graph
Practice
Assume that a pizza restaurant has a mean delivery time of 30
minutes and a standard deviation of 5 minutes. Find the interval that
contains the 68%, 95%, and the 99.7% of the data. And create a
normal distribution that shows the distribution of the pizza delivery
time.
Practice
Intervals:
68% 25 – 35 Graph:
95% 20 – 40
99.7% 15 – 45