Muddled in Normal Distribution
1
Part 2
Characteristics of Normal
Distribution
2
Study objectives：
1. To describe the characteristics of the normal
distribution.
2. To solve the medical problem in practice by
normal distribution method.
3
Review
f (X ) 1.2
f (X )1.2
1
1
0.8
f (X ) 1.2 0.8
0.61
0.6
0.4
0.8
0.6 0.4
0.2
0.4 0.2
0.2
0 0
0
3.8 4.24.6 4.6 5 5.4 5.8 X X
3.8 4.2 5.0 5.4 5.8 X 3.6 4 4.4 4.8 5.2 5.6 6
（a） （b）
Fig.1-3 The normal distribution curve
---The distribution of red blood cell number of adult males in a
certain place is gradually approaching to the normal distribution
4
f（x）(Ordinate-y axis) is called probability density
function. It can be deduced through higher mathematics method
expressing by mean and standard variation as follow：
π=3.14159
e=2.71828
μ---mean/ average
σ---standard deviation
So , if x is known, f (x) can be obtained by the function.
x---f (x) ---y
5
The cumulative area of the left side from -∞ to X,
can be obtained by integrating the probability
density function f(x).
---probability distribution function, which corresponding to
the cumulative area of the left side from -∞ to X
F(x)
x
x
x f (x) F (x) 6
(一) Characteristics
1. It is a kind of inverted bell shaped
distribution with high middle and low both sides，
left-right symmetry，and the two sides
gradually decreased but did not intersect with
the horizontal axis. There are two inflection
points in X＝μ±σ. The shape of the curve
above the inflection point is convex outwards,
while that below the inflection point is concave
inwards.
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(2) high middle
(5)convex outwards
(4) two inflection point
(5)concave inwards.
(2) low both sides
(3) did not intersect
-5 2-4
.58 -1
-3 1 .96-2 0 1 2 1 .96
3 4 2 .585
68 .3%
95 .0%
99 .0%
(1) inverted bell shaped
fig.2-1 Characteristic of normal distribution curve 8
2. The normal distribution is left-right
symmetrical and centered around the mean.
The farther away x is from the μ, the closer the
f (x) is to 0，but not equal to 0.
A B
C D
mean
-5 2-4
.58 -1
-3 1 .96-2 0 1 2 1 .96
3 4 2 .585
68 .3%
95 .0%
99 .0% 9
3. There are two parameters in the normal
distribution. N (μ, 2).
μ is location parameter，determining the offset
position of the curve over the horizontal axis. When
is fixed, with the increase of μ the curve moves to the
right along the horizontal axis; and with the
decrease of μ the curve moves to the left along the
horizontal axis.
-4 -3 -2 -1 01 1 22 3 43 5 6 7
1 2 3 10
is a variation parameter that determines the shape
of the curve distribution. The larger the is, the
shorter and fatter (flatter) the curve shape is, and the
more dispersed the data is; while the smaller the
is, the taller and thinner (more towering) the curve
shape is, and the more concentrated the data is .
1 smaller--- concentrated
2
larger--- dispersed
3
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 11
1
2
3
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 01 1 22 3 43 5 6 7 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3
1 2 3
fig.2-2 Three different mean Fig.2-3 Three different standard
values to normal distribution deviations to normal distribution
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4. The whole area between the normal curve and the
horizontal axis is equal to 100% or 1.
5. There is a regular pattern in the area under the normal
curve. If the mean plus or minus the same value, i.e.
μ±nσ, the area between μ and μ-nσ under the curve is
the same as that between the μ and μ+nσ.
A B
C D
mean
-5 2-4
.58 -1
-3 1 .96-2 0 1 2 1 .96
3 4 2 .585
68 .3%
95 .0% 13
99 .0%
(二) Area under normal curve
The area under the curve and above the horizontal
axis equals to 1 or 100%;
There is equal area between X>μ and X< μ under the
curve and above the horizontal axis which accounts for
50% respectively
X< μ X>μ
-5 2-4
.58 -1
-3 1 .96-2 0 1 2 1 .96
3 4 2 .585
68 .3%
95 .0%
99 .0%
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Area between the following intervals under the curve
respectively is as follow:
（μ-σ, μ+σ） 68.3％
（μ-1.645σ, μ+1.645σ） 90.00％
（μ-1.96σ, μ+1.96σ） 95.00％
（μ-2.58σ, μ+2.58σ） 99.00％
（X-S, X+S） 68.3％
（X-1.645S, X+1.645S） 90.00％
（X-1.96S, X+1.96S） 95.00％
（X-2.58S, X+2.58S） 99.00％
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Red shadow area - Blue shadow area=68.3%
-5 2-4
.58 -1
-3 1 .96-2 0 1 2 1 .96
3 4 2 .585
68 .3%
95 .0%
99 .0%
fig.2-4 Area under normal distribution curve
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Fig.2-5 The area under the normal distribution curve
Normal reference value of red blood cell :
n=140
Red blood cell value: x1，x2, x3, …, xn, n=140.
X, S X±1.96 S (A,B)
95%，include most blood cell
If the value is outside X±1.96 S, “the value is normal” is
a small probability event (P<5% or P<0.05 ), it is
impossible to be normal value.
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2.5% 2.5%
Fig.2-6 95% the reference value range
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Explaining:
A normal distribution curve has certain characteristics. The central
line is the mean value μ. If we take μ-1.96σ and μ+1.96σ on either
side of the mean, it covers 95 % of the area under the curve: 95 %
of the observations fall under this area. Of the remaining 5 %, 2.5 %
each of the observations fall on either side of curve (called the tails
of the data ). That is to say, 5 % fall outside the area of μ±1.96σ.
So we can call μ±1.96σ as 95 % confidence range. It means “the
confidence level of an observation of falling within the area is 95 %”.
Any observation falling outside this area is considered to differ from
the observed or expected data or normal data. The result is
assumed to differ significantly in statistics. So, for any difference to
be significant, it should be outside the area of μ±1.96σ, To put it in
other words, if the probability located in the curve is less than 5 %, it
is significant different statistically.
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Example： 16%/2.5%=6.4
16%
2.5%
-5 2-4
.58 -1
-3 1 .96-2 0 1 2 1 .96
3 4 2 .585
68 .3%
95 .0%
99 .0%
Fig.2-7 The area under the normal distribution curve 21
Mozart(1756-1791), a Austrian, the great classical musician in Europe.
Einstein (1879-1955), a Swiss, great physicist, founded the theory of relativity.
frequency
Normal distribution of IQ 22
The Wall Street journal of America in “Sina” micro-blog
issued an article entitled “Sex and the City: ‘leftover
women’(剩女) economics ”, which seems to turns out that
the “leftover girl” is actually a “win woman“ according to the
normal distribution theory. Because high IQ people (＞μ+σ,
a step higher than the average IQ) occupy for 16% of the
total population, and only 2.5% of the much higher IQ
people (＞μ+2σ, two step higher than the average IQ) . If a
high IQ woman (＞μ+σ) must find a smart man (＞μ+2σ),
that‘s one of the 6.4.
（16%/2.5%=6.4）
Girl 16%---Boy 2.5% Difficult Leftover girl
“A flower was put on the cow dung”(一朵鲜花插在牛粪上)
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Summary
Characteristics of Normal Distribution：
1.The combination of mean and standard deviation can
completely describe a normal distribution.
2.It is a kind of inverted bell shaped distribution
3.The normal distribution is left-right symmetrical
4. The whole area between the normal curve and the
horizontal axis is equal to 100% or 1.
5. There is a regular pattern in the area under the
normal curve.
Area between the following intervals：
（μ-σ, μ+σ） 68.3％
（μ-1.645σ, μ+1.645σ） 90.00％
（μ-1.96σ, μ+1.96σ） 95.00％
（μ-2.58σ, μ+2.58σ） 99.00％
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Bye-bye!
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