Section 2.1 Part 1: Percentiles, CRFGs, and

Z-scores

Objectives

• Use percentiles to locate individual values within distributions of data.• Interpret a cumulative relative frequency graph.• Find the standardized value (z-score) of an observation. Interpret z-

scores in context.

Example 1

• Find the percentiles for the following teams:• The Colorado Rockies, who won 92 games.

• Colorado Rockies, who won 92 games, are at the 80th percentile, since 24/30 teams had fewer wins than they did.

• The New York Yankees, who won 103 games.• New York Yankees, who won 103 games, are at about the 97th percentile since 29/30 teams had fewer wins than they

did.

• The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians, who both won 65 games.• The two teams with 65 wins, the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Indians, are at the 10th percentile since only

3/30 teams had fewer wins than they did.

Example 2

Example 2 Continued

• At what percentile is California, with a median income of $57,445?• California, with a median household

income of $57,445, is at about the 79st percentile.

• Estimate and interpret the first quartile.• The first quartile of this distribution

is the 25th percentile. About 25% of the states have median incomes less than $45,000.

Example 3

• The single-season home run record for major league baseball has been set just three times since Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927. Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961, Mark McGwire hit 70 in 1998 and Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001. In an absolute sense, Barry Bonds had the best performance of these four players, since he hit the most home runs in a single season. However, in a relative sense this may not be true. Baseball historians suggest that hitting a home run has been easier in some eras than others. This is due to many factors, including quality of batters, quality of pitchers, hardness of the baseball, dimensions of ballparks, and possible use of performance-enhancing drugs. To make a fair comparison, we should see how these performances rate relative to others hitters during the same year. • Compute the standardized scores for each performance. Which player had the

most outstanding performance relative to his peers?

Example 3 Continued