You are interested in finding how many hours a person is willing to wait for a plane. It is found that the time people are willing to wait has a mu=5.2 and a sigma=1.1. What is the probability a person is willing to wait more than seven hours? Using the standard score formula, z=(x−mu)/sigma, the z-score equals to two decimal places 1.64, which corresponds to a probability of 0.9495 on my z-score tables. However, on the answer key provided, it states the probability is 0.0505 or what would correspond to a z-score of −1.64. Is this a trick of the wording involved in the question or are my z-tables (or standard score formula) wrong?

Paxton Hoffman

Paxton Hoffman

Answered question

2022-07-18

You are interested in finding how many hours a person is willing to wait for a plane. It is found that the time people are willing to wait has a μ = 5.2 and a σ = 1.1. What is the probability a person is willing to wait more than seven hours?
Using the standard score formula, z = ( x μ ) / σ , the z-score equals to two decimal places 1.64, which corresponds to a probability of 0.9495 on my z-score tables. However, on the answer key provided, it states the probability is 0.0505 or what would correspond to a z-score of −1.64.
Is this a trick of the wording involved in the question or are my z-tables (or standard score formula) wrong?

Answer & Explanation

tykoyz

tykoyz

Beginner2022-07-19Added 17 answers

You've computed correctly, but interpreted the number incorrectly. What you've found is the probability that someone is willing to wait at most 7 hours; the probability you want is
1 0.9495 = 0.0505
as the answer key states.

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