The table below shows the BMI-for-age for boys aged 18 years in Singapore.
Age (years) Weight Indicator Underweight Overweight percentile percentile 18
It is given that the BMI for 18-year-old boys follows a normal distribution .
| Age (years) | Weight Indicator | Underweight | Overweight |
|---|---|---|---|
| percentile | percentile | ||
| 18 |
- (i)
Show that .
- (ii)
Hence, find the minimum value of BMI, , such that a randomly chosen 18-year-old boy is overweight.
- (iii)
The BMI for 15-year-old boys follows another normal distribution .
Find the probability that the average BMI of a randomly chosen 15-year-old boy and a randomly chosen 18-year-old boy is more than 20.1.
- (iv)
State, in context, an assumption made in your calculation in (iii).
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Worked solution
10(i)
1. Formulate the probability equation using the percentile information given in the table.
Let be the BMI of a randomly chosen 18-year-old boy.
From the table, the percentile is , which means:
2. Standardise the variable and determine the standard normal z-score.
Standardising to the standard normal variable :
Using the inverse normal function on the calculator for an area of :
3. Solve for the standard deviation $\sigma$.
(shown)
10(ii)
1. Set up the probability equation for the $90^{\text{th}}$ percentile of the normal distribution based on the given table.
Let be the BMI of a randomly chosen 18-year-old boy.
Since the overweight indicator starts at the percentile,
2. Use the inverse normal function on a graphing calculator to evaluate $m$.
10(iii)
1. Define the random variable for the average BMI and find its mean and variance.
Let and be the BMI of a randomly chosen 18-year-old and 15-year-old boy respectively.
and
Let the average BMI be .
Hence,
2. Calculate the required probability.
We need to find the probability that the average is more than , which is .
Using a graphing calculator:
0.792
10(iv)
1. State the statistical assumption required to compute the variance of the linear combination of the two random variables.
In part (iii), to find the variance of the average BMI (a linear combination ), it was assumed that the two variables are independent.
In context: The BMI of a randomly chosen 15-year-old boy and the BMI of a randomly chosen 18-year-old boy are independent.
The BMI of a randomly chosen 15-year-old boy and the BMI of a randomly chosen 18-year-old boy are independent.
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