difference between normal distribution and standard normal distribution

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difference between normal distribution and standard normal distribution
Message posted by Nadina (via 128.238.26.135) on July 10, 2001 at 3:17 PM (ET)

What is the difference between the practical meaning of the normal distribution and standard normal distribution? I know they both help you determine the probability of an event and I also know that probability can be calculated by using either of them. (z=(-miu)/sigma) Could you give me a practical example where you user both of them and show me the difference?

Thank you in advance.

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Re: difference between normal distribution and standard normal distribution
Message posted by JG (via 128.8.23.101) on July 10, 2001 at 10:15 PM (ET)

Z=(X-average)/SD , where X is what you acually observe and Z is needed to use tables and make calculations .

Re: difference between normal distribution and standard normal distribution
Message posted by Phil (via 165.247.230.207) on July 10, 2001 at 10:41 PM (ET)

The standard normal is a normal distribution with mean = 0 and standard deviation =1.

You can "transform" any normal distribution into a standard normal by subtracting the mean and dividing by the std. dev. Then you only need one set of table to do all your probability calculations.

This is typically explained reasonably well in all statistics textbooks with examples.

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