Question

Suppose that two graduating seniors, one a marketing major and one an accounting major, are comparing job offers. The accounting major has an offer for $45,000 per year, and the marketing student has an offer for $43,000 per year. Summary information about the distribution of offers follows:

Accounting: mean = 46,000 standard deviation = 1400Marketing: mean = 42,500 standard deviation = 1200Then calculate the appropriate z scores. Round the answers to two decimal places.

Answer 1

a)

z = -0.71

b)

z = 0.42

Explanation:

Z score is the number of standard deviations by which a value is above or below the mean score of the observed population. Values above the mean have positive Z scores, while those below the mean have negative Z scores.

The Z score is given by the equation:

`z=(x-\mu)/(\sigma)`

a)

Given that:

For accounting: mean (μ) = 46,000 standard deviation (σ) = 1400

Since the accounting major has an offer for $45,000 per year

`z=(x-\mu)/(\sigma)=(45000-46000)/(1400)=-0.71`

b)

Given that:

For Marketing: mean (μ) = 42,500 standard deviation (σ) = 1200

Since the marketing student has an offer for $43,000 per year

`z=(x-\mu)/(\sigma)=(43000-42500)/(1200)=0.42`