To draw a normal curve for the distribution of sunflower heights, first draw a horizontal line across the center of your paper to represent the mean height of 64 inches. Then, draw a bell-shaped curve above and below the line to represent the distribution of heights. The curve should be symmetrical around the mean.
To label the horizontal axis, start by marking the mean at 64 inches. Then, use the standard deviation of 3.5 inches to mark the points that are one, two, and three standard deviations from the mean. This means that the first point will be at 64 - 3.5 = 60.5 inches, the second point will be at 64 - 3.52 = 57 inches, and the third point will be at 64 - 3.53 = 53.5 inches.
To determine the number of sunflowers that will be taller than 71 inches, we can use the normal distribution to calculate the probability that a sunflower will be taller than 71 inches. Because the distribution is symmetrical around the mean, this probability will be the same as the probability that a sunflower will be shorter than 71 inches. We can then multiply this probability by the total number of sunflowers in the field to get the approximate number of sunflowers that will be taller than 71 inches.
To calculate the probability that a sunflower will be shorter than 71 inches, we need to know the z-score corresponding to 71 inches. The z-score is the number of standard deviations that a given value is from the mean. To calculate the z-score, we can use the formula z = (x - mean)/standard deviation, where x is the value we are interested in (71 inches), mean is the mean of the distribution (64 inches), and standard deviation is the standard deviation of the distribution (3.5 inches). Plugging these values into the formula, we get z = (71 - 64)/3.5 = 2.
We can use this z-score to look up the probability of a value being shorter than 71 inches in a standard normal table. A standard normal table is a table that shows the probabilities for different values of the standard normal distribution, which is a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. Because our distribution has a different mean and standard deviation, we need to convert our z-score to a standard normal value using the formula z_std = (z - mean)/standard deviation. Plugging in the values from our distribution, we get z_std = (2 - 64)/3.5 = -18.3. Looking up this value in a standard normal table, we find that the probability of a value being shorter than -18.3 is 0.00003.
We can use this probability to approximate the number of sunflowers that will be taller than 71 inches by multiplying the probability by the total number of sunflowers in the field. In this case, we have approximately 0.00003 * 3000 = 0.9 sunflowers that will be taller than 71 inches. This is a very small number, so it is likely that there will be no sunflowers in the field that are taller than 71 inches.