Annoying Probability

[J.Z-M]

With continuous probability what is meant by a 'z' value.
E.g z <0.378

Also with the binomial theorem, how high are the powers they could ask you to expand to, e.g Expand: (2x+7)^12

Thanks for the help
(Note to self:This is one subject that annoys me, Grrr..)

[brendan]

z is the number of standard deviations away from the mean

[midas_touch]

With the binomial theorem, I would be surprised if they got you to expand any higher than powers of 8.

[Mao]

i know in CAS sometimes they have questions with powers up to 40 (that's in crazy textbook tho, not in exam), but that's only because the CAS have the cool calculators with "binomCdf" in one of their stats apps

even tho it is probably heaps easier if you do it with combinatorics

[enwiabe]

Uh, normal graphics calculators have binomcdf too...

[Collin Li]

With the binomial theorem, I would be surprised if they got you to expand any higher than powers of 8.

Often the questions ask you for the coefficient of the term. This means you can be expected to solve anything that fits on a calculator.

[excal]

With continuous probability what is meant by a 'z' value.
E.g z <0.378

Also with the binomial theorem, how high are the powers they could ask you to expand to, e.g Expand: (2x+7)^12

Just to clear up on the 'z' value (brendan is correct that Z [standard deviations]). To explain it further, it is simply the standard normal distribution where and .

There is a formula you can use to convert between any normal distribution to a 'Z' standard normal distribution:



where:







(note: this is an example of a tech-free question)



EDIT: I might add this little subsection:

(from standard normal tables)

Thanks for the help
(Note to self:This is one subject that annoys me, Grrr..)

I *loved* probability...hence I took a unit of it at Uni

[J.Z-M]

I am starting to get it now. Now, at school we have this Differentiation application SAC that is worth about 40% of all our SAC marks.

[bturville]

haha. that sac was back when i did little work in methods, i flunked it bad. (50% ) so bad that my mark motivated me to promote methods in my stuying priority, and actually get a pretty good mark!

[Rietie]

Haha. My school doesn't do its probability unit till 3rd term. And I've never done a full unit of probability before in my life - only the two weeks in orientation every year.
And I've only had one real class of maths so far (I love yr12 retreat - 3 days off school), but it means I'm going to get heaps of maths work this week