Final answer:
To find the percentage of data that is 47 or greater in a normal distribution with a mean of 39 and a standard deviation of 8, about 15.87% of the data are above this value according to the empirical rule.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question pertains to the properties of the normal distribution and specifically asks about the percentage of data values that lie above a certain value. When the dataset is normally distributed with a mean of 39 and a standard deviation of 8, determining the percentage of data that is 47 or greater involves using the empirical rule or standard normal distribution tables.
Since 47 is one standard deviation above the mean (47 = 39 + 8), using the empirical rule, we can deduce that approximately 34.13% of the data lies between the mean and one standard deviation above the mean. To find the data beyond one standard deviation, we subtract this value from 50% (half of the data lies above the mean), resulting in 50% - 34.13% = 15.87%. Therefore, about 15.87% of the data are 47 or greater.