The Significance and the Use of the Normal Curve - Assignment Example

The concept of the normal curve may be applied to understand a common phenomenon of nature. For example, if one wants to study the height of children in the age group of 10-11, a normal distribution curve will be helpful. In a decent sample population, the height of every child may be measured and documented. When these figures are closely observed, there will be relatively few short children and relatively few tall children, and a maximum number of children will fall in the moderate height category that will be in between both these extremes.

The probability of occurrence of both extremes, i.e. tallness and shortness, is very low; and, the probability of occurrence of average height is more. When these figures, i.e. height and a number of children, are plotted graphically, a curve is obtained which is the normal curve or a bell curve (because it assumes an inverted bell shape), indicating the extremes at both ends and children with normal or average height in between the two. In conclusion, a normal curve forms the base of studying any statistical data measuring the behavior of data about the mean, median, and mode, all of which have to be the same for the sample to be termed normal.

This will also help in identifying outliers if any.