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Scores of an IQ test have a bell-shaped distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 18. Use the empirical rule to determine the following.

(a) What percentage of people has an IQ score between 64 and 136?
(b) What percentage of people has an IQ score less than 82 or greater than 118?
(c) What percentage of people has an IQ score greater than 154?

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Final answer:

Using the empirical rule for a bell-shaped distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 18: (a) About 95% of people have an IQ score between 64 and 136, (b) 16% have an IQ score less than 82 or greater than 118, and (c) Less than 0.5% have an IQ score greater than 154.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the use of the empirical rule, also known as the 68-95-99.7 rule, to determine certain probabilities related to IQ scores. Since IQ scores have a bell-shaped distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 18, we can apply this rule to find the requested percentages.

  1. Percentage of people with an IQ score between 64 and 136: 64 is two standard deviations below the mean (100 - 2*18) and 136 is two standard deviations above the mean (100 + 2*18). According to the empirical rule, approximately 95% of the data is within two standard deviations of the mean. Therefore, about 95% of people have an IQ score between 64 and 136.
  2. Percentage of people with an IQ score less than 82 or greater than 118: 82 is one standard deviation below the mean (100 - 18) and 118 is one standard deviation above the mean (100 + 18). Since 68% of people are within one standard deviation of the mean, 100% - 68% = 32% are outside this range. However, since this range is split equally on both sides of the mean, each tail will have half of 32%, which is 16%. Therefore, 16% of people have an IQ score less than 82 or greater than 118.
  3. Percentage of people with an IQ score greater than 154: 154 is three standard deviations above the mean (100 + 3*18). According to the empirical rule, more than 99% of the data is within three standard deviations of the mean. Therefore, less than 1% of people have an IQ score greater than 154, and since half of that would be represented in the upper tail, it is less than 0.5%.

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