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x mean
standard deviation
The z-score tells us how many standard deviations a particular piece of data is away from the mean of the
distribution. It therefore allows us to make comparisons across distributions. A z-score is very, very, very
useful in statistics.
So now we can figure out whose GPA is more impressive, Ferris or Cameron.
Percentiles are used often when reporting academic scores such as SAT scores. Lets say you get a 620 on
the math portion of the SAT. It might also indicate that you are in the 78th percentile. That means that
you scored better than 78% of all students taking that particular SAT.
A few miscellaneous facts:
Pk is the notation for the kth percentile
P25 Q1
P50 Q2 median
P75 Q3
Example: Here are the scores of 25 students on the chapter 1 test in AP Calculus
79
81
80
77
73
74
93
78
80
75
67
73
77
83
86
90
79
85
83
89
84
82
77
72
83
The score that is bolded is Eli Mannings score. How did Eli do relative to his classmates?
For example, if on a test, if your grade was exactly the mean grade of the entire class, what would your zscore be?
So would you assume that if you got the exact average grade then you would be in the 50th percentile
right? Not necessarily. If the distribution is heavily skewed to the left would you really be in the 50th
percentile?
Chebyshevs Inequality
In ANY distribution, the percent of observations falling within k standard deviations of the mean is at
1
least ( 100 ) 1 2
k
1
2
k
at least ( 100 ) 1
Foreshadowing comment:
Chebyshevs inequality holds for ANY distribution. The second half of this chapter is titled Normal
Distributions. We will get a lot more specific with Chebyshevs inequality when the distribution is
Normal. We will call that more specific rule the 68-95-99.7 Rule.
Density Curves
So far we have worked only with jagged histograms and stem plots to analyze data. As we begin to explore more
fully the many statistical calculations and analyses one can perform on data it will become clear that working with
smooth curves is much easier than jagged histograms. These smooth curves are called Density curves.
The mean and the median are equal in a symmetric density curve.
The mean and the median are not equal in a skewed density curve.
Calculus connection:
On the normal curve, at a distance of on either side of the mean , are two points. These points are
called inflection points and they signify where the curve changes concavity. The normal curve changes
from concave up to concave down at these points. To find the inflection points, you would need to find
the second derivative of the function.
An unbelievable property that all normal curves have is that they follow the 68-95-99.7 rule
In a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation :
68% of the observations fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean.
95% of the observations fall within 2 standard deviations of the mean.
99.7% of the observations fall within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
We can also figure out the percentile of each student once we know their z-scores. In order to do that, we
need to understand Table A
Examples:
1.) Find the area under the standard normal curve to the left of z = 1.15
2.) Find the proportion of observations from the standard normal curve that are less than 1.15
3.) Find the probability of randomly selecting an individual from a normal population whose z-score is
1.15 or less.
Method 1: Construct a histogram, stem and leaf plot or box plot to determine if the shape is
approximately bell shaped with symmetry about the mean. This is fairly easy because if you load the data
into your calculator, you can check a histogram very quickly.
Method 2: Check the normal probability plot (on TI-83). This is an easy and quick way to check for
normality. You are shooting for a normal probability plot that has a linear trend to it.
Method 3: You can improve upon the accuracy of methods 1 and 2 by checking to see if the 68-95-99.7
rule applies (approximately) to the data. Find the mean, and standard deviation of the data. Find out if
approximately 68% of the data points are within 1 standard deviation of the mean, 95% are within 2
standard deviations, and approximately 99.7% are within 3 standard deviations. The last method is
cumbersome, so only use it as a back-up plan.
Example: The following are the heights of 50 of my former male students, randomly selected from my
classes. Are male student heights at DHS normally distributed?
68, 68, 73, 74, 75, 68, 68, 66, 70, 72, 69, 63, 68, 69, 68, 65, 68, 67, 69, 70, 71, 68, 66, 72, 69, 69, 70, 67,
64, 69, 70, 71, 68, 68, 67, 67, 69, 65, 68, 70, 69, 67, 66, 61, 68, 69, 69, 71, 72, 70
Method 1:
Since the histogram looks approximately bell shaped and the boxplot looks somewhat symmetric, we can
say the data comes from a normal distribution.
Method 2:
Since the normal probability plot looks approximately linear, we can say the data comes from a normal
distribution.
Note: The line that is drawn, does not appear on the TI-83.
Method 3: