ECON 230
Lab 5
The goal of this lab is to learn to work with the normal distribution.
Use V3, your data about the vote percentages that different candidates received, as the variable
x that you’re interested in learning about.
MAKE SURE TO HAND IN THE ANSWER SHEET ONLY WHEN YOU HAND IN LAB 5!
(1 point) 1. Use Excel to compute the mean and standard deviation of V3.
(2 points) 2. Sort the list of 40 data values from smallest to largest, using the Excel directions about
how to sort at the end of the next page. Write down the values on lines #5, #20, and #35.
Compute the corresponding z-scores by subtracting the mean from each x value and
dividing by the standard deviation. Round to two decimal places. Your table should like
the table below. Suppose that I have a sample of 40 candidates and the mean vote
percentage is 48 and the standard deviation is 11. My table would look like:
Line Number x value (life expectancy) z-score
5 L=32.1 –1.45
20 M=49.3 0.12
35 H=63.7 1.43
In the table above, L should be the fifth-lowest value in your data set, M is a value
near the middle of your data set, and H is the fifth-highest value in your data set.
For the rest of the lab, you will make the assumption that your data is approximately normally
distributed. For each of the following problems, assume that the mean and standard deviation
are the values you found in problem 1.
(3 points) 3. Using the mean and standard deviation from question 1, and using the formula
x z
, find the data value x that goes with the following z-scores
Use
x
(the mean you found in Problem 1) and
s
(the standard
deviation you found in Problem 1).
.
i.
2 50
.
z
ii.
3 20
.
z
iii.
0z
(2 points) 4. Sketch (by hand) a normal curve with your value for
x
(the mean you found in part 1) as
. Take the three values specified in question 3 above, and locate them on your x–axis.
Clearly label your x– axis as being a candidate’s vote percentage. Round the
corresponding z-scores (from 3 above) to two decimal places. Write the z-scores on a line
below the x-axis.
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