Stat help

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Lifer
Jul 21, 2005
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I had Statistics in high school so I'm pretty decent on this stuff but for some reason I cannot get this problem right. This is for studying, not a HW problem.



Suppose X ~ N(10, 4)
If P(x0 < X < 14) = 0.7783, find x0.

I keep getting 16.12, while the answer is apparently 3.88

If there are any math whizzes that could help me out, I'd appreciate it.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
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It's been a very long time for me, so I'm unsure of the notation. Does the N(10,4) mean that x is normally distributed with a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 4?

For what it's worth, how did you get 16.12? I'm assuming the latter half of the question is "the probability that X is greater than x0 and less than 14 (between x0 and 14) is .7783

And, from the looks of your answer, I have a sneaky suspicion that you added when you should have subtracted (or vice versa)
 

speg

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Apr 30, 2000
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If you're looking for X between x0 and 14 - then you know your answer of 16 is way off....

I'll get back to you on the rest :p

Yeah, here you go:

10 - 1.53 * 4 = 3.88
--------------------------

So you know the mean is 10. SD is 4.

You want to know x0 if the probability of X between x0 and 14 is 0.7783

Well, 14 is 1 SD from the mean. So look up the probability it is between 10 and 14 on the Z-Table for Z=1 and you get 0.3413

But you want the total probability to be 0.7783 so you still need 0.7783-0.3413 = 0.437 on the low end.

So, look up the Z-Score for 0.437 -> Z=1.53 Now you know where your low end should be: 10 - 1.53 * 4 = 3.88

(10 + 1.53 * 4 = 16.12 was your mistake)
 

Q

Lifer
Jul 21, 2005
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Ahh I see speg, the x0 was to the left of the mean so that makes it a negative Z value, so my 6.12 should have been -6.12

Thanks!
 

blinky8225

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Nov 23, 2004
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Hmm, I always thought the second parameter is the variance, not standard deviation? Perhaps some textbooks do it differently
 
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