What z value corresponds to 17 percent of the data between the mean and the z value?

Answer 1

I believe your question is to find a range going from the mean to a z-value on the standard normal distribution that corresponds to 17% of the area. A normal distribution goes from values of minus infinity to positive infinity. A standard normal distribution has a mean of 0 and an standard deviation of 1. It is usually best if you draw a diagram, in this case a bell shape curve with mean = 0. The area to the left of the mean is 50% of the total area. We find a z value that corresponds to 67% (50% + 17%) of the area to the left of this value. This can be done either with a lookup table or a spreadsheet program. I prefer excel, +norminv(0.67) = 0.44. The problem could also be worded to find the area going from a z-value to the mean. In this case, we must find a z-value that corrsponds to 33% (50-17). Using Excel, I calculate +norminv(0.33) = -0.44.