What are importance of mean and standard deviation in the use of normal distribution?

Answer 1

For data sets having a normal distribution, the following properties depend on the mean and the standard deviation. This is known as the Empirical rule. About 68% of all values fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean About 95% of all values fall within 2 standard deviation of the mean About 99.7% of all values fall within 3 standard deviation of the mean. So given any value and given the mean and standard deviation, one can say right away where that value is compared to 60, 95 and 99 percent of the other values. The mean of the any distribution is a measure of centrality, but in case of the normal distribution, it is equal to the mode and median of the distribtion. The standard deviation is a measure of data dispersion or variability. In the case of the normal distribution, the mean and the standard deviation are the two parameters of the distribution, therefore they completely define the distribution. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution