Refer to Example 4.19. Find the 40th percentile of battery lifetimes.
From the z table, the closest area to 0.4000 is 0.4013, corresponding to a z-score of −0.25. The population of lifetimes has mean 50 and standard deviation 5. The 40th percentile is the point 0.25 standard deviations below the mean. We find this value by converting the z-score to a raw score, using Equation (4.10):
z = \frac{x\ −\ \mu}{\sigma} (4.10)
−0.25 = \frac{x \ −\ 50}{5}
Solving for x yields x = 48.75. The 40th percentile of battery lifetimes is 48.75 hours. See Figure 4.9.