Chapter 7: Problem 92
Provide graphs and use the calculator. Men have an average weight of 172 pounds with a standard deviation of 29 pounds. a. Find the probability that 20 randomly selected men will have a sum weight greater than 3600 lbs. b. If 20 men have a sum weight greater than 3500 lbs, then their total weight exceeds the safety limits for water taxis. Based on (a), is this a safety concern? Explain.
Short Answer
Step by step solution
Calculate the Mean and Standard Deviation for the Sample Sum
Find the Z-Score for the Sum Weight Greater than 3600 lbs
Calculate the Probability
Analyze the Safety Concern
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Key Concepts
These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.
Normal distribution
When a dataset follows a normal distribution, approximately 68% of the data falls within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% within two standard deviations, and 99.7% within three. This is known as the empirical rule or the 68-95-99.7 rule.
- A common example observed in human populations is attributes like height or weight, where the majority of the data is centered around an average value.
- The normal distribution is pivotal in calculating probabilities and making inferences about a population from sample data.
- In our exercise, the weights are assumed to follow a normal distribution, enabling the use of statistical tools like Z-scores for probability estimation.
Z-score calculation
To find a Z-score, one can use the formula:\(Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma} \), where \(X\) is the value being assessed, \(\mu\) is the mean, and \(\sigma\) is the standard deviation.
- The Z-score tells you how many standard deviations away an element is from the mean.
- If a Z-score is 0, it indicates the element is exactly at the mean.
- Positive Z-scores indicate values above the mean, while negative Z-scores indicate values below the mean.
- In our exercise, we calculated a Z-score to determine the probability of a group of men having a combined weight greater than a specified amount.
Standard deviation
- A low standard deviation means that data points tend to be close to the mean.
- A high standard deviation indicates that data points are spread out over a wider range of values.
- Mathematically, it is calculated by taking the square root of the variance. The formula for standard deviation for a sample is:\[\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{\sum (X_i - \mu)^2}{N}} \]
- \(X_i\) is each data point in the dataset.
- \(\mu\) is the mean of all data points.
- \(N\) is the number of data points.
Mean calculation
- The mean is calculated by summing all the values in the dataset and then dividing by the number of values.
- The formula for finding the mean \(\mu\) is: \(\mu = \frac{\sum X_i}{N}\) where \(X_i\) represents each individual value and \(N\) is the total number of values.
- It allows for comparison with other statistical measures like median and mode.
- For a normal distribution, the mean, median, and mode are all equal and located at the center of the distribution.