A particular fruit's weights are normally distributed, with a mean of 380 grams and a standard deviation of 8 grams.

If you pick 20 fruits at random, then 3% of the time, their mean weight will be greater than how many grams?

Give your answer to the nearest gram.

1 answer

To determine the weight above which 3% of the sample means will fall when picking 20 fruits, we can use the properties of the normal distribution.

  1. Identify the parameters of the distribution:

    • Population mean (\(\mu\)) = 380 grams
    • Population standard deviation (\(\sigma\)) = 8 grams
    • Sample size (\(n\)) = 20 fruits
  2. Calculate the standard deviation of the sample mean (\(\sigma_{\bar{x}}\)): \[ \sigma_{\bar{x}} = \frac{\sigma}{\sqrt{n}} = \frac{8}{\sqrt{20}} \approx 1.7889 \text{ grams} \]

  3. Find the z-score corresponding to the top 3% tail of the distribution: Since we want the mean weight greater than a certain value, we need to find the z-score that corresponds to 97% of the distribution (as the top 3% is in the right tail).

    You can look up the z-value for 0.97 in the standard normal (z) table or use a calculator: \[ z \approx 1.88079 \]

  4. Convert the z-score back to the corresponding weight: Using the formula for converting a z-score to an x-value: \[ x = \mu + z \cdot \sigma_{\bar{x}} \] Plugging in the values: \[ x = 380 + 1.88079 \cdot 1.7889 \approx 380 + 3.359 \approx 383.359 \]

  5. Round to the nearest gram: The value we calculated is approximately 383.359 grams, which rounds to 383 grams.

Therefore, 3% of the time, the mean weight of the 20 fruits will be greater than 383 grams.