Example 2: gas mileage and the normal distribution
a normal curve is a smooth curve that is symmetric and bell shaped. data distributions that are mound shaped are often modeled using a normal curve, and we say that such a
distribution is approximately normal. one example of a distribution that is approximately normal is the distribution of compy heights from example 1. distributions that are approximately
normal occur in many different settings. for example, a salesman kept track of the gas mileage for his car
over a 25-week span.
the mileages (miles per gallon rounded to the nearest whole number) were
23, 27, 27, 28, 25, 26, 25, 29, 26, 27, 24, 26, 26, 24, 27, 25, 28, 25, 26, 25, 29, 26, 27, 24, 26.