1. Chapter 4 Lesson 4.4a Numerical Methods for Describing Data
4.4: The Empirical Rule and z-scores

2. Are you sure you want Tests to be “Curved?”
What does it mean when you (students) say to me (teacher) that you wish the test was curved?

3. Interpreting Center & Variability
Empirical Rule-
Approximately 68% of the observations are within 1 standard deviation of the mean
Approximately 95% of the observations are within 2 standard deviation of the mean
Approximately 99.7% of the observations are within 3 standard deviation of the mean
99.7%
95%
68%
Can ONLY be used with distributions that are bell-shaped (normal curve)!

4. The Empirical Rule
The following shows what the Empirical Rule (aka: Rule) tells us:
What does this mean about your Quiz Scores?
Mean: 84% Standard Deviation: 14%

5. The height of male students at SMHS is approximately normally distributed with a mean of 71 inches and standard deviation of 2.5 inches.
What percent of the male students are shorter than inches?
b) Taller than 73.5 inches?
c) Between 66 & 73.5 inches?
About 2.5%
About 16%
About 81.5%

6. Say I did Curve…
If I (teacher) told you (student) that I did curve the test.
Then I told you that you scored 10 points above the mean.
What grade did you get?
YOU DON’T KNOW!
WHY?

7. Measures of Relative Standing
Z-score
A z-score tells us how many standard deviations the value is from the mean.

8. What do these z-scores mean?
-2.3
1.8
-4.3
2.3 standard deviations below the mean
1.8 standard deviations above the mean
4.3 standard deviations below the mean

9. Sally is taking two different math achievement tests with different means and standard deviations. The mean score on test A was 56 with a standard deviation of 3.5, while the mean score on test B was 65 with a standard deviation of Sally scored a 62 on test A and a 69 on test B. On which test did Sally score the best?
Z-score on test A
Z-score on test B
She did better on test A.

10. Z-Scores
Class Handout: “Notes: Standard Deviation and the Normal Model”

11. Chapter 4 Lesson 4.4b Numerical Methods for Describing Data
4.4: The Empirical Rule and z-scores

12. Measures of Relative Standing
Percentiles
A percentile is a value in the data set where r percent of the observations fall AT or BELOW that value

13. In addition to weight and length, head circumference is another measure of health in newborn babies. The National Center for Health Statistics reports the following summary values for head circumference (in cm) at birth for boys.
Head circumference (cm)
32.2
33.2
34.5
35.8
37.0
38.2
38.6
Percentile 5 10 25 50 75 90 95
What percent of newborn boys had head circumferences greater than 37.0 cm?
25%
10% of newborn babies have head circumferences bigger than what value?
38.2 cm

14. Ch.4 Review
Class Handout: “Measuring Spread (Variability)” Partner Review Handout: “AP Statistics Quiz C – Chapter 6” (#1-3)

15. Homework
Pg.207: #4.39, 41c, 43, 46 (bi&ii), 48, 50