Question

Briefly describe four characteristics of the standard normal curve and give at least three uses of the curve to a teacher.

Answer 1

Characteristics of the standard normal curve

• the mean, median and mode are equal
• the standard normal curve is symmetrical about the mean
• exactly half of the values are to the left of the center and exactly half the values are to the right
• area under the curve is totally 1

The standard normal curve is often used to estimate or to compute probabilities of events involving normal distributions. The standard normal distribution is a tool to translate a normal distribution into numbers which may be used to learn more information about the set of data than was originally known.

A normal distribution is a distribution that occurs naturally in many situations. For example, it is seen in tests like the SAT and GRE. The bulk of students will score the average (C), while smaller numbers of students will score a B or D. An even smaller percentage of students score an F or an A.