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Homework help - how to find the standard deviation? (10 points for best answer!)?

Weakly earnings on a certain import venture are approximately normally distributed with a known mean of $488 and unknown standard deviation. If the proportion of earnings over $502 is 34%, find the standard deviation. Answer only up to two digits after decimal.

I have tried this multiple times and I still have no idea how to do this. Any help would be appreciated!

1 Answer

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  • Alan
    Lv 7
    1 year ago

    P(X> 502)  = 1 -P(x< 502)   

    0.34  = 1- P(x<502) 

    P(x< 502) = 1- 0.34  = 0.66     

    so look up Z value for  

    P(z<Z) = 0.66  

    P(z< 0.41 ) = 0.65910 

    P(z< 0.42 )  = 0.66276

    0.41   + (0.66 -0.6591) * 0.01/ (0.66276-0.65910) 

    Z value = 0.412459016   =0.4125  approx.   

    Z = (x-mean)/standard deviation 

    Z*standard deviation = x -mean 

    standard deviation  = (x-mean)/ Z  = (502-488)/ 0.4125  =  33.93939394  

    === My Answer (and most correct answer) 

    standard deviation  = 33.94  (rounded to two digits after the decimal) 

    alternate answer if they expect you to use the closest Z value   

    if they expect you to just us the closest Z value , 

    it would be Z= 0.41,  then SD = 14/0.41 = 34.15 

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