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Practice Problems on the Area under the Normal Curve

 

Practice Problems

  1. For a normal histogram with center 0 and spread 1, what proportion of observations are in the specified bin?

    a. (-∞, -2.00] Ans: 0.0288   b. (-∞, -3.00] Ans: 0.0013   c. (-∞, 0.00] Ans: 0.5000

    d. (-∞, 1.00] Ans: 0.8413   e. (-∞, 3.00] Ans: 0.9987   f. (-∞, 1.64] Ans: 0.9495

    g. (-∞, -0.72] Ans: 0.2358   h. (-∞, ∞) Ans: 1.000

    i. [2.87, ∞) = 1 - area of (-∞, 2.87] = 1 - 0.9972 = 0.0027

    j. [0.78, ∞) = 1 - area of (-∞, -0.78] = 1 - 0.2177 = 0.7823

    k. [-1.12, ∞) = 1 - area of (-∞, -1.12] = 1 - 0.1214 = 0.8786

    l. [-0.04, ∞) = 1 - area of (-∞, -0.04] = 1 - 0.4880 = 0.5120

    m. [-1.00, 1.00] = area of (-∞, 1.00] - area of (-∞, -1.00] = 0.8413 - 0.1587 = 0.6826

    n. [-2.00, 2.00] = area of (-∞, 2.00] - area of (-∞, -2.00] = 0.9772 - 0.0228 = 0.9544

    o. [-3.00, 3.00] = area of (-∞, 3.00] - area of (-∞, -3.00] = 0.9987 - 0.0013 = 0.9974

    p. [-3.49, 3.49] = area of (-∞, 3.49] - area of (-∞, -3.49] = 0.9998 - 0.0002 = 0.9996

    q. [-1.54, 2.45] = area of (-∞, 2.45] - area of (-∞, -1.54] = 0.9946 - 0.0618 = 0.9828

    r. [0.23, 2.09] = area of (-∞, 2.09] - area of (-∞, 0.23] = 0.9817 - 0.5910 = 0.3907

    s. [-0.95, 1.37] = area of (-∞, 1.37] - area of (-∞, -0.95] = 0.9147 - 0.1711 = 0.7436

    t. [-3.32, -3.09] = area of (-∞, -3.09] - area of (-∞, -3.32] = 0.0010 - 0.0005 = 0.0005

  2. For bins of the form (-∞, z], which values of z give the following proportion of observations in that bin?

    a. 0.138   Ans: (-∞, -1.09]  b. 0.376   Ans: (-∞, -0.31]  c. 0.500   Ans: (-∞, 0.00]

    d. 0.652   Ans: (-∞, 0.39]  e. 0.998   Ans: (-∞, 2.88]

  3. For bins of the form [z, ∞), which values of z give the the following proportions?

    a. 0.007   Ans: area of [-∞, 2.46] = 1 - 0.007 = 0.993, so area of [2.46, ∞) = 1 - 0.993 = 0.007.

    b. 0.287   Ans: area of [-∞, 0.56] = 1 - 0.287 = 0.713, so area of [0.56, ∞) = 1 - 0.713 = 0.287.

    c. 0.701   Ans: area of [-∞, -1.97] = 1 - 0.701 = 0.309, so area of [-1.97, ∞) = 1 - 0.309 = 0.701.

    d. 0.998   Ans: area of [-∞, -3.49] = 1 - 0.998 = 0.002, so area of [-3.49, ∞) = 1 - 0.002 = 0.998.

  4. For bins of the form [-z, z], which values of z give the the following proportions?

    a. 0.137

    Ans: If area of [-z, z] = 0.137, then area of (-∞, -z] and [z, -∞) together is 1 - 0.0137 = 0.9863. Also area of (-∞, -z] = area of [z, ∞), so area of (-∞, -z] = 0.9863 / 2 = 0.4931. Therefore z = 0.02.

    b. 0.379

    Ans: By the same reasoning as Part a, if the area of [-z, z] is 0.379, the area of (-∞, -z] = (1 - 0.379) / 2 = 0.3105, so z = 0.52.

    c. 0.652

    Ans: By the same reasoning as Part a, if the area of [-z, z] is 0.652, the area of (-∞, -z] = (1 - 0.652) / 2 = 0.174, so z = 0.92.

    d. 0.992

    Ans: By the same reasoning as Part a, if the area of [-z, z] is 0.992, the area of (-∞, -z] = (1 - 0.992) / 2 = 0.004, so z = 3.38

  5. For a standard normal curve, where are Q1 and Q3 located?

    Ans: We want the area of [-z, z] to be 0.5000, so the area of (-∞, -z] = (1 - 0.5000) / 2 = 0.25. This means that z = 0.67; Q1 = -0.67, Q3 = 0.67. IQR = 0.67 - (-0.67) = 1.34

  6. For a standard normal curve, how far from the center must an observation be to be called a mild outlier?

    Ans: The inner fence above Q3 is at Q3 + 1.5 * IQR = 0.37 + 2.01 = 2.38. The inner fence below Q1 is at -2.38.

  7. Use the result of Problem 5 to predict the percentage of mild outliers in a standard normal dataset.

    Ans: The area of (-∞, -2.38] is 0.0087 = area of [2.38, ∞), so the proportion of mild outliers is 2 * 0.0087 = 0.0174.

  8. The heights of a population of 100,000 men are normally distributed with a mean of 68 inches with SD = 3. About how many men have heights

    1. below 65 inches?

    2. above 74 inches?

    3. between 62 and 74 inches?

  9. IQ scores are normally distributed with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. Find the IQ scores that correspond to these percentiles: