The time taken, in minutes, by a ferry to cross a lake has a normal distribution with mean 85 and standard deviation 6.8.
Find the probability that, on a randomly chosen occasion, the time taken by the ferry to cross the lake is between 79 and 91 minutes.
Solution
Let the time taken be represented by the random variable \(X\), where \(X \sim N(85, 6.8^2)\).
We need to find \(P(79 < X < 91)\).
Standardize the variable using the formula \(Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}\), where \(\mu = 85\) and \(\sigma = 6.8\).
Calculate the z-scores:
For \(X = 79\), \(Z = \frac{79 - 85}{6.8} = -0.8824\).
For \(X = 91\), \(Z = \frac{91 - 85}{6.8} = 0.8824\).
Thus, \(P(79 < X < 91) = P(-0.8824 < Z < 0.8824)\).
Using the standard normal distribution table, find:
\(\Phi(0.8824) = 0.8111\) and \(\Phi(-0.8824) = 1 - 0.8111 = 0.1889\).
Therefore, \(P(-0.8824 < Z < 0.8824) = 0.8111 - 0.1889 = 0.622\).
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