NORMAL DISTRIBUTION EXERCISES

(1) The weekly distances, D km, a leopard walks in search of food are thought to be Normally
distributed with a mean of 62 and a standard deviation of 10. Find the probability that on a given
week a leopard will walk less than 80 km.

(2) The time, T minutes, Jason takes to cycle to school is Normally distributed with a mean of
17 and a variance of 8. Find the probability that on a given day Jason will take over 22 minutes
to cycle to school.

(3) The length of a certain type of eel, L cm, is assumed to be a Normal variable with a mean of
77 and a standard deviation of 8. Find the probability that the length of a randomly picked eel
will be at least 65 cm.

(4) The heights of mature elm trees, H metres, are Normally distributed with a mean of 14.5 and
a variance of 7. Determine the probability that the height of a randomly chosen elm tree will be
less than 12 metres.

(5) The weights of walnut cakes, W grams, are Normally distributed with a mean of 460 and a
standard deviation of 10. Find the probability the weight of such cake will be between 465 and
475 grams.

(6) The lifetimes, T hours, of a certain brand of battery are assumed to be Normally distributed
with a mean of 825 and a variance of 900 . Find the probability that one such battery will last
between 801 and 870 hours.

(7) The journey times of a bus service, T minutes, are thought to be Normally distributed with a
mean of 62 and a standard deviation of 5 . Determine the probability that the time of a random
journey from this bus service will be between 50 and 60 minutes.

(8) The petrol consumption C , measured in mpg, of a certain make of car is Normally
distributed with a mean of 36 and a standard deviation of 4 . Find the probability that the petrol
consumption of one of the cars of this make will be measured between 30 mpg and 36 mpg.

(9) The volume of washing up liquid, V ml, in a bottle is Normally distributed with a mean of 150
and a standard deviation of 10. Find the probability a bottle selected at random will contain less
than 163 ml.

(10) Antonia’s walking times to school, T minutes, are Normally distributed with a mean of 36
and a variance of 10. Find the probability that her next walking time to school will be over 40
minutes.

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(11) The burning times of scented candles, T minutes, are Normally distributed with a mean of
252 and a standard deviation of 20 . Find the probability that one such candle will burn for more
than 237 minutes.

(12) The weights of decorating marbles, W grams, are Normally distributed with a mean of 12.5
and a variance of 8 . Find the probability that one such marble will weigh less than 7.6 grams.

(13) The weights of raw chestnuts, W grams, are Normally distributed with a mean of 42and a
standard deviation of 6 . Find the probability that the weight of a chestnut picked at random will
be between 44 and 48 grams.

(14) The heights of sunflower plants, H cm, are Normally distributed with a mean of 140 and a
standard deviation of 25. Determine the probability the height of a random sunflower plant will
have a height between 100 and 160 cm.

(15) The weights of cherries, W grams, are Normally distributed with a mean of 17.5 and a
standard deviation of 1.6 . Find the probability the weight of a cherry will be between 15.2 and
16.8 grams.

(16) The heights of skyscrapers in a very populous city, H metres, are Normally distributed with
a mean height of 180 and variance of 300 . Find the probability the height of a skyscraper will be
between 180 and 202 metres.

(17) A mango that weighs over 372 grams is considered as “large” in size. The weights of
mangos, W grams, are Normally distributed with a mean of 350 and a variance of 200 . Find the
probability that a mango picked at random will not be large.

(18) The lengths of adder snakes, L cm, are Normally distributed with a mean of 75 and a
standard deviation of 8 . Find the probability the length of such a snake will be over 90 cm.

(19) The lengths of TV advertisements, in seconds, are Normally distributed with a mean of 28
and a variance of 30 . Find the probability that next TV advertisement will exceed 20 seconds.

(20) The weights of ponies, W kg , are Normally distributed with a mean of 400 and a standard
deviation of 25 . Determine the probability that the weight of a randomly chosen pony will be
less than 350 kg .

(21) The volume of cups of coffee, V ml , dispensed by a machine are assumed to be Normally
distributed with a mean of 166 and a standard deviation of 4 . Find the probability a cup filled at
random by the above mentioned machine will contain between 168 and 172 ml .

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(22) The times taken by students to complete a practice Maths test are Normally distributed
with a mean of 82 minutes and a standard deviation of 15. Find the time exceeded by 5% of the
students.

(23) The lifetimes of a certain brand of battery are assumed to be Normally distributed with a
mean of 405 hours. Find the standard deviation of these battery lifetimes, if 90% of these
batteries do notachieve a lifetime of 411 hours.

(24) The weights of pears classed as “grade A” are Normally distributed with a standard
deviation of 4 grams. Find the mean weight of a “grade A” pear if 0.5% of the weights of these
pears exceed 165 grams.

(25) The heights of six year old girls, in cm , are Normally distributed with a standard deviation
of 15. Calculate the mean height of six year olds, if 80% of the six year old girls are shorter than
113 cm.

(26) The times taken by students to complete a Psychology essay are Normally distributed with
a mean of 95 minutes and unknown standard deviation. Find the standard deviation, if 10% of
the students took more than 110 minutes to complete this essay.

(27) The heights of seven year old boys, in cm, are Normally distributed with a mean of 109 and
a standard deviation of 10. 95% of these seven year old boys are taller than a certain height h .
Find the value of h .

(28) The daily profit, in £, of a clothes shop can be modelled by a Normal distribution with a
standard deviation of 30 . Find, to the nearest £ , the average daily profit of the shop, if in 4 out
of 5 days the daily profit exceeds £285.

(29) The lengths of pine needles, in cm, are Normally distributed. It is further given that 11.51%
of these pine needles are shorter than 6.2 cm and 3.59% are longer than 9.5 cm. Find the mean
and the standard deviation of the length of these pine needles.

(30) The weights of newly born kittens are Normally distributed. 4.95% of newly born kittens are
heavier than 122 grams and 10.56% are lighter than 93 grams. Find the mean and the standard
deviation of the weights of newly born kittens.

(31) The weights of marmalade jars are Normally distributed with a mean of 250 grams.

a) Calculate, correct to 1 decimal place, the standard deviation of these jars if 1% of the jars are
heavier than 256 grams.

b) Using the answer of part (a), determine the probability that the weight of one such
marmalade jar is between 249 and 253 grams.

c) Given that the weight of a randomly picked marmalade jar is between 249 and 253 grams,
find the probability that the jar weighs more than 250 grams.

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(32) The continuous random variable X is Normally distributed with a mean of 9.5 and a
standard deviation of 1.3 .

a) Find P(X>12 )

b) Determine the value of a such that P(X<a) = 0.1587

(33) The volume of still water in Ebian bottles is Normally distributed with a mean of 502 ml and
standard deviation 2.5 ml .

A bottle of Ebian still water is selected at random.

a) Determine the probability that the bottle will contain ...

i. ... less than 506 ml .

ii. ... less than 495 ml .

iii. ... between 495 ml and 506 ml .

iv. ... exactly 500 ml .

v. ... 502 ml , correct to nearest ml .

The volume of sparkling water in Ebian bottles is Normally distributed with mean µ ml and
standard deviation σ ml .

It is known that 2.5% of these bottles contain more than 503.5 ml and 2.5% of these bottles
contain less than 498.5 ml .

b) Determine the value of σ .

(34) The contents of bottles of olive oil, in ml , produced by a small factory are Normally
distributed with mean µ and standard deviation 5 .

a) Find the value of µ if 97.5% of these bottles contain more than 994 ml.

b) Using the value of µ found in part (a), determine the probability that a bottle picked at random
will contain less than 992 ml .

An inspector visits the factory and selects a bottle at random.

If the bottle contains less than 992 ml , the factory will get fined.

c) Given that the factory got fined, determine the probability that the bottle that the inspector
examined contained less than 990 ml .

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(35) In a doctor’s surgery 1 in 40 patients wait more than 45 minutes to be seen, while 9 in 10
patients wait more than 20 minutes.

a) Assuming that these waiting times can be modelled by a Normal distribution,

find the mean and standard deviation of the distribution, giving both answers correct to the
nearest minute.

b) Using the answers of part (a) determine the probability that a randomly chosen patient waits
less than 18 minutes.

4 patients, from those waiting in the surgery, are selected at random.

c) Find the probability that only 2 of these 4 patients will have to wait for more than 20 minutes.

Answers
(1) 0.9641 (2) 0.03855

(3) 0. 9332 (4) 0.17235

(5) 0.2417 (6) 0.7213

(7) 0.3364 (8) 0.4332

(9) 0.90320 (10) 0.10295

(11) 0.77337 (12) 0.04160

(13) 0.21078 (14) 0.73334

(15) 0. 25558 (16) 0. 398

(17) 0. 9401 (18) 0.0304

(19) 0.92794 (20) 0.0228

(21) 0. 2417 (22) 106.7

(23) 4.7 (24) µ = 155

(25) µ = 100.376 (26) σ = 11.704

(27) h = 92.551 (28) £310

(29) µ = 7. 52, σ = 1.1

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(30) µ = 105.5, σ = 10

(31) (a) σ = 2.6, (b) 0.5285, (c) 0. 7145

(32) (a) 0.02724, (b) a=8.2

(33) (a)(i) 0.9452, (ii) 0.0026, (iii) 0.9426, (iv) 0, (v) 0.1586, (b) σ = 1.28

(34) (a) 0.0139, (b) 5182, (c) 0.0568

(35) (a) 1003.8, (b) 0.0091, (c) 0.318